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GC: Oh yes. It was a fantastic experience because, at the end of that show, Arlo Guthrie asked
everyone to stand up and sing his father's tune, ‘This Land Is Your Land’. I stood up and I started
singing the song and I'm like, stop it, you're right next to Odetta. So I turned to her, and she looked
at me and gave me this real regal nod of approval, and then the two of us locked into the most
amazing harmonies together. So I sang with Odetta [chuckles].
BiTS: Wonderful. Absolutely tremendous. Listen, I'm not going to take too much more of your
time because one of
the things I've
Odetta - Water Boy learned over the
years of doing
these interviews is
that the longer we
talk, the longer it
takes me to
transcribe them.
But what I want to
do is to ask you
about something
which I am very
interested in and
that is, I
understand you
play cigar box
guitars. Is that
right?
GC: That is correct. Yeah. Yeah.
BiTS: Do you make your own?
GC: No, no, no, no. No, I don't. I actually need something that's really reliable [laughing]. As you
know, homemade cigar boxes are difficult to keep in tune. So I have a collection of cigar boxes,
endorsed by Rob CBG, out of Destin, Florida. These are masterful pieces, masterful instruments.
I mean, I can put it back in its case after a show, and two weeks later, pick it up and the thing is
still perfectly in tune [chuckles].
GC: Alright. Well, I have a whole set-up because I have two podcasts and a radio show called The
Queens of the Blues. I play music from female blues artists from the early 20s until present times.
BiTS: Well, that's absolutely fabulous. That's music that I love. I have two radio shows. The first
one is a general kind of blues programme with contemporary music and another one which is
nothing else but acoustic blues and a lot of that is very, very old music.
GC: Oh, nice, nice. Well, I have an acoustic blue song that I'm going to send you. It's from an earlier
album, but it's unusual for us because we don't normally do the acoustic thing other than the
Odetta album.
BiTS: Gina, I won't take any more of your time. I thank you very much indeed for speaking to me.
It's been wonderful speaking to you, and I wish you the very best of luck.