Musical Tube: Week of 12/29/2008

LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Mo 12/29: Harry Connick Jr. (R 11/25/08)
We 12/31: Purple Reign (R 11/17/08)

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC

Mo 12/29: the Cure (R 12/11/08)
Tu 12/30: k.d. lang (R 12/8/08)
Fr 1/2: Johnny Mathis (R 12/22/08)

LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

Mo 12/29: Ray Davies (R 11/14/08)
Tu 12/30: the Bacon Brothers (R 11/18/08)
We 12/31: Sarah McLachlan (R 11/19/08)
Fr 1/2: Third Day (R 11/20/08)

LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 12/29: Al Green (R 8/7/08)
Tu 12/30: the Hold Steady (R 8/25/08)
Th 1/1: Delta Spirit (R 9/3/08)

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Tu 12/30: Gym Class Heroes (R 12/11/08)
We 12/31: New Year's Eve Special, with Ludacris, Katy Perry, T.I., the Ting Tings
Th 1/1: T.I. (R 11/6/08)
Fr 1/2: the Sounds (R 11/11/08)

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Mo 12/29: the Hives (R 11/20/08)
Tu 12/30: the Jonas Brothers (R 11/25/08)
Th 1/1: Keane (R 12/22/08)
Fr 1/2: Scott Weiland (R 11/26/08)

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

Mo 12/29: Rick Springfield (R)
We 12/31: Gavin DeGraw (R)
Th 1/1: Seal (R)

TAVIS SMILEY, PBS

Th 1/1: Yusuf Islam (R)
Fr 1/2: Natalie Cole (R)

THE HOUR WITH GEORGE STROUMBOULOPOULOS, CBC

Tu 12/30: Coldplay (R)
Fr 1/2: Alanis Morissette (R)

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Austin City Limit – Check your local listings

Soundstage - Check your local listings

Saturday Night Live

Musical Tube: Week of 12/22/2008

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LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Mo 12/22: Todd Rundgren
Tu 12/23: Darlene Love
Th 12/25: Super Diamond (R 11/20/08)

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC

Mo 12/22: Johnny Mathis
Tu 12/23: Natalie Cole
Th 12/25: Relient K (R 12/16/08)
Fr 12/26: Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson (R 12/9/08)

LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

Mo 12/22: Matt Nathanson
Tu 12/23: Conor Oberst

LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 12/22: Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Tu 12/23: Old Crow Medicine Show
Th 12/25: Billy Joel (R 12/25/07)
Fr 12/26: Isaac Hayes (R 12/26/07)

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Mo 12/22: the Airbourne Toxic Event (R 9/29/08)
Tu 12/23: P.O.D. (R 10/1/08)
Th 12/25: Shirley Manson, Cut Copy (R 10/2/08)
Fr 12/26: Taylor Swift (R 12/10/08)

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Mo 12/22: Keane
Tu 12/23: John Legend (R 11/5/08)
We 12/24: Fall Out Boy (R 12/19/08)
Th 12/25: Robin Thicke (R 11/7/08)
Fr 12/26: Hinder (R 11/6/08)

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

Mo 12/22: Il Divo
Tu 12/23: Jason Mraz
Fr 12/26: the Jonas Brothers, Randy Travis (R)

THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated

Mo 12/22: the Jonas Brothers (R 9/8/08)
Tu 12/23: Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake (R 11/11/08)
We 12/24: Cher, the Pussycat Dolls, Missy Elliott (R 11/3/08)
Th 12/25: Kid Rock (R 9/25/08)

TAVIS SMILEY, PBS

Mo 12/22: Seal (R)
We 12/24: Sarah McLachlan (R)
Fr 12/26: Quincy Jones (R)

Austin City Limit – Check your local listings

Soundstage - Check your local listings

Saturday Night Live

Musical Tube: Week of 12/15/2008

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LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Tu 12/16: Fall Out Boy
We 12/17: Broken Social Scene
Th 12/18: Of Montreal
Fr 12/19: Leona Lewis

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC

Mo 12/15: Sheryl Crow
Tu 12/16: Relient K
We 12/17: Staind
Th 12/18: Los Lonely Boys
Fr 12/19: Melissa Etheridge

LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

We 12/17: Death Cab for Cutie

LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 12/15: John Legend
Tu 12/16: Fleet Foxes
Th 12/18: Little Big Town

LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Mo 12/15: Meiko
Tu 12/16: the Dan Band
We 12/17: Panic at the Disco
Th 12/18: will.i.am, the Cure
Fr 12/19: Gavin DeGraw (R 12/8/08)

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART, Comedy Central

Tu 12/16: Hall & Oates (R 12/11/08)

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Mo 12/15: Lady GaGa (R 10/23/08)
Tu 12/16: the Cure
We 12/17: the Fray
Th 12/18: All American Rejects
Fr 12/19: Fall Out Boy

THE VIEW, ABC

Mo 12/15: John Legend
Tu 12/16: Melissa Etheridge
Th 12/18: Renee Fleming

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

Th 12/18: Enya

THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated

Tu 12/16: Britney Spears
We 12/17: Eric Benet
Th 12/18: Plain White T's

TAVIS SMILEY, PBS

Th 12/18: will.i.am
Fr 12/19: Al Jarreau

THE HOUR WITH GEORGE STROUMBOULOPOULOS, CBC

Tu 12/16: Brian McKnight

THE BONNIE HUNT SHOW, syndicated

Tu 12/16: Dave Koz
We 12/17: Trace Adkins
Th 12/18: Jesse McCartney
Fr 12/19: Melissa Etheridge

THE MORNING SHOW WITH MIKE AND JULIET, syndicated

Mo 12/15: Brian McKnight
Fr 12/19: Patti LaBelle

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Austin City Limit – Check your local listings

Soundstage - Check your local listings

Saturday Night Live

Musical Tube: Week of 12/8/2008

LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS

Mo 12/8: the Duke Spirit
We 12/10: Loudon Wainwright III
Th 12/11: Bon Iver
Fr 12/12: Jeff Altman
THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC

Mo 12/8: KD Lang
Tu 12/9: Ingrid Michaelson Sara Bareilles
We 12/10: Lyle Lovett
Th 12/11: the Cure
LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON, CBS

Mo 12/8: Seal
Tu 12/9: Ken Tucker
We 12/10: Tokyo Police Club
LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC

Mo 12/8: the Lee Boys
Tu 12/9: Gaslight Anthem
Th 12/11: Tony Bennett
LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY, NBC

Mo 12/8: Gavin DeGraw
Tu 12/9: Josh Radin
We 12/10: Taylor Swift
Th 12/11: Gym Class Heroes
JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, ABC

Tu 12/9: Common
We 12/10: Adele
Th 12/11: Snow Patrol
Fr 12/12: Barry Manilow

THE VIEW, ABC

Mo 12/8: Paula Abdul
Tu 12/9: Brandy

LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY, syndicated

We 12/10: Jason Mraz
THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated

Tu 12/9: Darius Rucker
We 12/10: Adele
Th 12/11: Common, Cee-Lo
Fr 12/12: Barry Manilow

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Austin City Limit – Check your local listings

Soundstage - Check your local listings

Saturday Night Live

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RIP: Odetta dies at 77

American folk music legend Odetta dies at 77

By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer NEW YORK – Odetta, the folk singer with the powerful voice who moved audiences and influenced fellow musicians for a half-century, has died. She was 77.

Odetta died Tuesday of heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital, said her manager of 12 years, Doug Yeager. She was admitted to the hospital with kidney failure about three weeks ago, he said.

In spite of failing health that caused her to use a wheelchair, Odetta performed 60 concerts in the last two years, singing for 90 minutes at a time. Her singing ability never diminished, Yeager said.

"The power would just come out of her like people wouldn't believe," he said.

With her booming, classically trained voice and spare guitar, Odetta gave life to the songs by workingmen and slaves, farmers and miners, housewives and washerwomen, blacks and whites.

First coming to prominence in the 1950s, she influenced Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and other singers who had roots in the folk music boom.

An Odetta record on the turntable, listeners could close their eyes and imagine themselves hearing the sounds of spirituals and blues as they rang out from a weathered back porch or around a long-vanished campfire a century before.

"What distinguished her from the start was the meticulous care with which she tried to re-create the feeling of her folk songs; to understand the emotions of a convict in a convict ditty, she once tried breaking up rocks with a sledge hammer," Time magazine wrote in 1960.

"She is a keening Irishwoman in `Foggy Dew,' a chain-gang convict in `Take This Hammer,' a deserted lover in `Lass from the Low Country,'" Time wrote.

Odetta called on her fellow blacks to "take pride in the history of the American Negro" and was active in the civil rights movement. When she sang at the March on Washington in August 1963, "Odetta's great, full-throated voice carried almost to Capitol Hill," The New York Times wrote.

She was nominated for a 1963 Grammy awards for best folk recording for "Odetta Sings Folk Songs." Two more Grammy nominations came in recent years, for her 1999 "Blues Everywhere I Go" and her 2005 album "Gonna Let It Shine."

In 1999, she was honored with a National Medal of the Arts. Then-President Bill Clinton said her career showed "us all that songs have the power to change the heart and change the world."

"I'm not a real folksinger," she told The Washington Post in 1983. "I don't mind people calling me that, but I'm a musical historian. I'm a city kid who has admired an area and who got into it. I've been fortunate. With folk music, I can do my teaching and preaching, my propagandizing."

Among her notable early works were her 1956 album "Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues," which included such songs as "Muleskinner Blues" and "Jack O' Diamonds"; and her 1957 "At the Gate of Horn," which featured the popular spiritual "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."

Her 1965 album "Odetta Sings Dylan" included such standards as "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Masters of War" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'."

In a 1978 Playboy interview, Dylan said, "the first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta." He said he found "just something vital and personal" when he heard an early album of hers in a record store as a teenager. "Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar," he said.

Belafonte also cited her as a key influence on his hugely successful recording career, and she was a guest singer on his 1960 album, "Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall."

She continued to record in recent years; her 2001 album "Looking for a Home (Thanks to Leadbelly)" paid tribute to the great blues singer to whom she was sometimes compared.

Odetta's last big concert was on Oct. 4 at San Francisco's Golden State Park, where she performed in front of tens of thousands at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, Yeager said. She also performed Oct. 25-26 in Toronto.

Odetta hoped to sing at the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, though she had not been officially invited, Yeager said.

Born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., in 1930, she moved with her family to Los Angeles at age 6. Her father had died when she was young and she took her stepfather's last name, Felious. Hearing her in glee club, a junior high teacher made sure she got music lessons, but Odetta became interested in folk music in her late teens and turned away from classical studies.

She got much of her early experience at the Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles, where she sang and played occasional stage roles in the early 1950s.

"What power of characterization and projection of mood are hers, even though plainly clad and sitting or standing in half light!" a Los Angeles Times critic wrote in 1955.

Over the years, she picked up occasional acting roles in TV and film. None other than famed Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper reported in 1961 that she "comes through beautifully" in the film "Sanctuary."

In the Washington Post interview, Odetta theorized that humans developed music and dance because of fear, "fear of God, fear that the sun would not come back, many things. I think it developed as a way of worship or to appease something. ... The world hasn't improved, and so there's always something to sing about."

Odetta is survived by a daughter, Michelle Esrick of New York City, and a son, Boots Jaffre, of Fort Collins, Colo. She was divorced about 40 years ago and never remarried, her manager said.