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Odetta
Odetta became nationally famous in 1959 when Harry Belafonte featured her on his television special. Pete Seeger said, "The first time I heard Odetta sing she sang 'Take This Hammer' and I went and told her how I wish Leadbelly was still alive so he could have heard her."
Odetta sang at the 1963 March on Washington and performed for President Kennedy. In 1999 President Clinton awarded her the National Medal for Arts and Humanities.
Legend credits Odetta's records with inspiring Janis Joplin to start singing blues and a teenaged Bob Dylan to trade his electric guitar for an acoustic model. Odetta played the Caffè from 1985 until 2002. |
Odetta |
Rick Danko
Best known as bass player and vocalist for The Band, Danko played stadium shows around the world, backing up artists including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters and other before venturing on to his solo career as a singer and guitarist.
He performed at The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. Rick Danko played at the Caffè at least three times during the '80s and '90s.
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Rick Danko |
Don McLean Photo: © 1973, Joseph Deuel |
Don McLean
McLean's "American Pie" was a number-one hit in 1972 and then again in 2000 when Madonna recorded it. Don Mclean was a close friend to Lena and a regular at the Caffè for several years.
George Michael has covered McLean's "The Grave" and Garth Brooks has called him "my idol" and featured McLean at his 1997 concert in Central Park in front of 750,000 fans. Josh Groban recently covered "Vincent," the original of which was number one in the UK for McLean.
Don McLean was a regular at the Caffè in the years before American Pie. During the height of his fame he performed more than one benefit for Lena.
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Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris began her rise to superstardom with her 1972 collaboration with the late country-rock legend Gram Parsons. She has won eleven Grammy awards and worked with an astonishing array of artists ranging from Johnny Cash, John Denver and Dolly Parton to Neil Young, Roy Orbison, Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello.
Her 2000 album, Red Dirt Girl showed her to have as strong a talent in songwriting as she was known to have as a vocalist, and she continues to work at the highest artistic and commercial levels, blurring the lines between country, rock and folk music. Emmylou Harris played at the Caffè in the late '60s and early '70s.
More to be added very soon....
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"Compiled and edited by Jocelyn
Arem, Caffè Lena historian/Board of Directors with special thanks to
the Saratoga History Museum"
This project is made possible by the generous support of The Sparkplug Foundation & Skidmore College’s President’s Discretionary Fund
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