A living 'musical institution' will visit Bermuda over Heroes weekend this October.

Odetta (Holmes) will be performing in concert in Bermuda as part of the Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF) Reel World Weekend on October 10 to 12.

She will sing 'Gospel Songs for the Soul' on October 12 at the Fairmont Southampton Mid-Ocean Amphitheatre at 3 p.m.

While many of today's singers have the lasting power of a lit match, gospel, jazz and folk singer Odetta has persevered for over 50 years. Although now 77-years-old, and in a wheelchair, she still performs before a full house. Many of the audience members are young people who first heard their mothers or grandmothers playing her music.

"She is a legendary gospel singer, Grammy nominated, took part in the march on Selma...in short, a musical institution," said BIFF Deputy Director Duncan Hall.

Odetta was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1930. Her parents moved to Los Angeles when she was six-years-old. When she was 13 she began classical musical training.

In her early career in the 1950s and 1960s she helped to break down many barriers, performing venues like Carnegie Hall and national television.

In the 1960s she took part in civil rights marches, and sang during the 1963 March on Washington. She also performed for President John F. Kennedy.

It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who dubbed her the 'queen of American folkmusic'.

She has received many awards including Best Traditional Artist of Folk of the Year by the Folk Alliance's National Convention in Memphis in 2007 .

Many famous people have sited her as an inspiration including Elvis Presley, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Elton John, Janis Joplin and former President Bill Clinton, to name a select few. She has appeared in films, and has recorded many albums. 'Lookin' For A Home' in 2001, and'Gonna Let it Shine' in 2005 are two of her most recent.

The 2005 album was released by MC Records, and in February 2007 it was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Tickets to her event in Bermuda are $65 in advance, $75 at the door and $50 for youth under 12. Tickets are available at www.bdatix.bm, at Transact on Internet Lane in Hamilton, at Picture Perfect in the Heron Bay Plaza in Southampton and by telephone ($3 fee per ticket) 232-2255. For more information email events@biff.bm or call 293-3456.

The Royal Gazette recently spoke with Odetta by telephone. Here is Odetta in her own words.

You have a lot of achievements. What are you most proud of?

I am proud that I am still at it. I don't ever see myself retiring. If I end up with three notes in my voice, I will be on someone's stage singing those three notes. Music has been comforting for me. It has been a guide for me. It has been my schooling. It has been healing for me.

Have you been in good health?

I am okay now.

Have you had some challenges then?

I had a fractured hip and asthma. Outside of that I am okay.

How do you sing with asthma? I would think that would be a challenge. Do you have to take a lot of medication?

I do take medication and there are times I need to breathe in oxygen, but it doesn't stand in the way of the singing.

What was the meaning of your documentary film title, 'No one Can Dig You with Dignity'.

Nobody can give you the feeling of confidence in you except you. You shouldn't wait for people to give it to you. You will be waiting all your life. As we are born, we come with our own individual positives. Too many times we are bouncing around trying to please ten different people and we get very confused. So it boils down to nobody can do it but you.

Do you feel that your purpose in singing has changed in 55 years?

I am sure it must change. Nothing stays the same. The experience is the teacher itself. Nothing stays the same unless you want it to stay the same.

I remember in the 1950s on television they would have performers lip sinc their songs on television. That is a very hard thing to do because you always forget how you did it before. The time changes and you have changed. You really have to put on the skids and study how you did it. I did it maybe twice and that was enough for me. It didn't work. Time itself is maybe the teacher.

What is your favourite song that you have sung over the years?

Oh, I am too greedy. I have a lot of them. I am also in an area where I don't have to sing the same song because it was a hit for 10 million times.

Sometimes I feel very sorry for those who have to sing their hit over and over and over again. It is hard work. They are keeping themselves bound in one spot. I enjoy the freedom that I have in this area of folk music. I am basically a song interpreter. Having the freedom to interpret the song that I am looking at is an absolute joy. They too are changing. My looking at them, and my way of approaching the songs is different when I was 25 years old.

So what is your approach now?

There is no way for me to describe it, except if I were giving a lesson. I would pass onto the student to get into the song and to be the person in the song.

Almost like method acting, I guess.

I suppose you could say that. In other words, let the song tell it's own story. People respond beautifully to that. It helps you go to places and be as true as possible. In some kind of way, I don't know how it happens, the audience responds to whatever truth you are finding in that song. The truth has to do with the fact that we are both human beings. We both know this world. We both have had trials and tribulations. We both have had joys. These are familiar things that make us even more familiar with someone who is able to sing a song truthfully. It becomes not only the singers story, but it becomes the audience's story.

What about your audience. Are they changing, or aging? Are you getting younger people?

They are ageing. I got a note the other day. This lady was saying she hadn't seen me since she was in college, which was 50 years before. Many times there are youngsters to the programme because their mothers or grandmothers played my songs and they were curious. It is changing.

Have you got many grandchildren yourself?

None at all.

Do you wish that you had any?

I have been around women who feel they need to have a baby to prove they are a woman. Then they get on the road and put the baby in someone else's arms. I think that is a bunch of nonsense and could be very hurtful to the child who needs the attention. You have been around little ones, they want your attention every single second. "Look at me!"

You have had to make some sacrifices.

If I had had a child I would have kept the child, of course. But since I didn't have any, I considered myself lucky that I didn't put any of my mania on someone else.

What are your goals now?

Just to keep going. (Laughter), and to go out easy.