Bettye LaVette

“In a career spanning 40 years she has maintained a level of almost unrivaled quality and consistency, wherever she recorded, for whatever label.” -John Ridley, soul historian

Soul singer Bettye LaVette has been performing and recording for over four decades. Bettye is just now getting her due, with a Blues Award in 2004 for “Best Comeback Album of the Year.” In 2008, she was named “Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year.”

“Imagine Otis Redding’s pleading style of Southern R&B rendered with Tina Turner’s leathery lungs, delivered with more emotion than Janis Joplin could summon.” -Jon Bream

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, LaVette grew up in the musical hotbed of Detroit. She made her recording debut at the age of 16. Her first single, “My Man, He’s a Loving Man,” was a top ten hit on the R&B charts in 1962. Her ability to make every song she sings her own made her a fixture on the charts for the next ten years, with a variety of songs from different corners of the music world. Due to a string of record industry mishaps, LaVette didn’t release a solo album until 1982’s Tell Me a Lie. Even after this moderate success, LaVette’s recordings were few and far between before her recent renaissance and ascension to the elite levels of soul music.

“The sexiest female vocalist alive” – Esquire

• LaVette singing “A Change is Gonna Come” with Jon Bon Jovi at President Obama’s 2009 Inauguration

• “Love Reign O’er Me” at The Kennedy Center Honors for The Who’s Townsend and Daltrey

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