I’m familiar with Odetta as the voice of the Civil Rights Movement back in the ’50s and ’60s and I know Martin Luther King called her the Queen of American folk music. But I’d never heard this ’til now.

Built around a simple backing of bass and drums, it comes from a 1970 album – Odetta Sings – on which she does exactly that, backed by a who’s who of famous session musicians and “special guests.”

Most of the songs are unmemorable covers of well-known tunes by the likes of The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Paul McCartney, James Taylor and Randy Newman. But the playing is peerless.

The studio musicians including the peerless Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section – David Hood (bass), Eddie Hinton (guitar), Roger Hawkins (drums) and Barry Beckett (keyboards) – and Carole King on piano.

The cover versions are not really worth seeking out but this is one of the two songs she wrote herself and it’s the best. Pure soul.