Odetta – Christmas Spirituals (LP – New)

Christmas Spirituals is the name of two albums recorded by the American folk singer Odetta. The first was released in 1960 on Vanguard Records. The second, a new recording of mostly the same songs, produced by Rachel Faro at White Crowe Audio in Burlington, Vermont, was originally released in 1987 on Alcazar Records and was reissued digitally in 2007 on Ashe Records. Both albums have Bill Lee, Spike Lee‘s father on double bass. The cover of the second Christmas Spirituals album, by the artist Coleen Patterson, depicts a Black Madonna by the River Jordan with the Three Kings in attendance. She^[who?] says these songs are traditional spirituals that emerged from the sufferings of slavery as a catharsis for the terrible wrongs that were committed.