John Platt on Odetta and Dee

Please keep a couple of our favorite musicians in your prayers.

One of folk music's legends, Odetta, has been in Roosevelt Hospital on the recommendation of her cardiologist to treat an illness that hit her while she was in California last month. Now 76, she continues to tour, but her health has been frail, and since the death of her sister several years ago, she hasn't always been good about taking care of herself. She obviously won't be able to attend the Grammys in L.A., where she is nominated for Best Traditional Folk Album for "Gonna Let It Shine" (recorded on the Fordham campus for an audience of WFUV members!).

More seriously, harpist/singer/songwriter Dee Carstensen has been waging a battle against liver cancer. The wife of jazz musician Mike Mainieri and the mother of a young daughter, Dee recently received a liver transplant. Mainieri has started a journal at this website for friends and fans to keep in touch:
http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=deecarstensen