LaVette was raised on the blues in Detroit, but unlike many soul sisters of song, she did not start off singing gospel in church. “Discovered” by the legendary Johnnie Mae Matthews, she recorded her first record at age 16. “My Man - He's A Lovin' Man” was quickly purchased by Atlantic Records and reissued as a big soul hit. Soon she was touring with James Brown and recorded another smash single, “Let Me Down Easy” in 1965; it remains the emblematic hit of her career. Through the 60s and 70s, Bettye LaVette made a number of highly regarded recordings (most getting little support from their labels), toured extensively, and had runs at a number of clubs including Smalls in New York. Covering some of the biggest tunes in the R&B canon, she regarded herself as an interpreter, not songwriter: “I’m a better editor. If you make a statement, I can make it a stronger statement. And, if you write a story, I can make it a stronger story. But I rarely think of a story I ever want to write myself.”

For six years, LaVette starred on Broadway opposite Cab Calloway in “Bubbling Brown Sugar.” In 1979, her single “Doin' The Best That I Can" became a disco hit. Bettye continued to tour and record through the 1980s and 1990s, appearing with Smokey Robinson on “Soul Train,” working in New Orleans and extensively in Europe. Yet, despite her popularity abroad and critical acclaim, she was relatively unknown in the US due to what she termed “buzzard luck,” having released only one full-length recording (in 1982) while releasing one hit single after another. Finally, Let Me Down Easy was released on a German label (Munich, 2000) and material recorded in the 1970s was released (20 years late) as Souvenirs (Body & Soul, 2001), followed by the highly acclaimed A Woman Like Me (Blues Express, 2003). 

Described in the New York Times as having “pure, magnificent soul: passion carried by an eloquent voice and exquisite timing,” LaVette was the hit of the 2003 Chicago Blues Festival. Said Chicago Tribune critic, Kevin McKeough, “LaVette sang in a raspy, sultry voice that resembled Tina Turner, filling her soul ballads with murmurs, growls and cries.” Recalling her January 2004 stint at the Dakota, Star Tribune critic Jon Bream noted, “She's old-school in sound and attitude, singing with her entire body, and without compromise.” Fueled by the success of A Woman Like Me, Bettye won theW.C. Handy Award in 2004 for “Comeback Blues Album of the Year” and was the Living Blues critics’ pick as “Best Female Blues Artist of 2004.” 

The idea for I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise (2005) came from Anti Records President Andy Kaulkin, who suggested that she record songs exclusively written by women songwriters. At first Bettye rejected the idea. “I didn’t want to do it at all,” she said. “I just felt that woman would write songs that would be too pitiful and they wouldn’t be exactly what I wanted to say…“I don’t really like to sing things that I wouldn’t say.” After considering over 100 songs, she ended up selecting no R&B/soul tunes at all: “I want everything that I know in my voice to be heard. You can’t pick all the inflections up in a straight ahead rhythm and blues song. I feel I’ve completely mastered rhythm and blues because it is so straight ahead. These kinds of songs I haven’t really had a chance to do.” Yet, despite the raw material, there is no doubt that LaVette remains the Great Lady of Soul. “I’m a soul singer,” she admits. “If I did an aria, it would be being done by a soul singer. I don’t know how to sing any other way.”

In 2007, Bettye unleashed Scene of the Crime, backed by the southern rockers, Drive By Truckers. Recorded at Muscle Shoals' Fame Studios, the latest recording is a defiant retort to Bettye’s never-released Child of the Seventies, an album that Atlantic Records oddly never distributed. It’s a diverse set with covers of everyone from Willie Nelson to Elton John. Noted Joshua Klein (Pitchfork Review), “Lavette's singing hasn't really been diminished by the passage of time, or at least not so much that it really matters. Here LaVette is all growl, snarl, bark, and, if you train your ear to the nuances in her delivery, sometimes deliciously mean and mirthful, too.”

Recent exploits include her late 2009 performance at the Kennedy Center Honors and spring 2010 appearances on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and The Late Show With David Letterman. And of course the new release, Inspirations, which finds Bettye translating British rock into its roots in American R&B. Drawing on material from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and more, “she is reinventing and reclaiming a soul-singing tradition all at once. What she is doing is pure and authentic” (Peter Townshend).

I first heard Bettye at her 2004 Dakota debut and have not missed a visit since. In essence, Bettye is our annual soul felon, one that this reviewer anticipates eagerly despite the fact that I am otherwise rather immune to the attraction of soul and R&B. My ears perk up for Bettye. My eyes as well—you could turn off the volume and still be mesmerized by the visually expressive LaVette. And maybe I also get considerable satisfaction seeing “an old broad” carry on like the teen sensation she was in her early career. 

In the words of Elle magazine, "She lays us flat with her powers of slow-burning devastation." Be ready to be devastated, and thoroughly entertained, when Bettye LaVette “raises hell” again on the Dakota stage, August 8-10.  
 

The Dakota Jazz Club is located in downtown Minneapolis, 1010 Nicollet Mall. One set each night at 7 pm. Reservations highly recommended at www.dakotacooks.com or call (612) 332-1010. For a review of the August 2010 show at the Dakota, click here.