| Advertisement |
|
Local Guides
|
|
|
Bettye LaVette finds her joy
Soul legend blazes a comeback trail
|
by Vish Khanna
March 23 — 29 2006 |
|
It has taken 45 years for her name to reach widespread
recognition but Bettye LaVette is now more than ready for her
close–up. The Detroit native has been toiling away in obscurity
despite having one of the most soul–stirring voices in all of
rhythm n’ blues. Now entering her 60th year, LaVette has gained
a new audience thanks to boutique label, Anti– Records, which
boasts a roster of fringe artists including Tom Waits, Daniel
Lanois, Nick Cave, and Neko Case. Last fall, Anti– released
LaVette’s I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise, a scorching collection of
songs written by the likes of Sinead O’Connor, Rosanne Cash, and
Dolly Parton among others. Each song was blessed to get
re–worked by the impassioned singer and a gutsy, rock n’ roll
band.
“They were selected by me but there was no particular story
to it,” LaVette explains. “The concept was something that the
company’s president Andrew Kaulkin came up with. He sent me
100 songs and I chose from those. Dolly Parton was the only
artist I was familiar with. She’s the only one close to my age,” she
laughs.
By and large, LaVette’s latest record contains compositions
by some great folk and alt–country songwriters. There are
meditative jams like Aimee Mann’s “How Am I Different,” building
storms like Fiona Apple’s “Sleep to Dream,” and the infectiously
uplifting take on Lucinda Williams’ “Joy.” The others are often
fiery and spiteful, telling stories about women done wrong who
seek empowerment or are broken–hearted and vulnerable as a
result. Though she often invests these songs with more intensity
and emotion than their originators, LaVette insists that all music
is bound to be re–shaped by new hands.
“I’m a rhythm n’ blues singer; I couldn’t possibly make a folk
song sound like Bob Dylan,” she says sharply. “So, all of these
songs have been defined now by a rhythm n’ blues singer. I
believe that if a hard metal band did them, they’d be
re–redefined. I don’t think there are genres of music, I believe
there are genres of singers.”
Indeed, “the singer not the song” tact that Rick Rubin took
with Johnny Cash gave the fabled voice of country music other
people’s words in which to write the stunning final chapter in his
storied musical career. Similarly, LaVette is grateful to Kaulkin and
Anti– for their faith in her talents as a singer to be able to pull off
a gem like I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise.
“I’m pleased with this CD and that’s no small thing for me to
say because I haven’t been particularly pleased with many of my
recordings over the past 45 years,” LaVette chuckles. “I am
particularly pleased with the last couple because they were
designed after they heard how I wanted to sing the songs. That
made them more tailor–made and naturally, with singers being
egomaniacs, that makes them perfect for me.”
It’s quite another career for a singer who had hit songs as a
teenager in the ’60s, only to fall away inexplicably. LaVette was
only 16–years–old when she recorded “My Man—He’s a Loving
Man,” which was a top 10 R&B hit song that would eventually be
covered by Tina Turner. She also gained notice in 1965 for her
emotional rendition of “Let Me Down Easy,” which came to be
regarded as her signature song. Since then, LaVette has cut
records for no less than 10 labels, only releasing her first
full–length album in 1982 on Motown. Until now, that was
ostensibly the end of LaVette’s recorded output until 2003’s A
Woman Like Me, which generated an overdue interest in soul and
blues circles for the dynamic style and live show of Bettye LaVette.
“If no one ever introduces you to music, you’re not gonna
find it in your own head,” LaVette says, referring to soul
aficionados who have just discovered her. “This is such a coup for
me because my company and Andrew promised me, ‘People in
America will know who you are now.’ I’m so thrilled about that
because you can become the number one artist in Greece but if
you’re from Chicago, you want the people there to know about
you.”
“We can’t get around the fact that I have not been
promoted,” she continues. “When people ask me about the
sorrows of this 45–year wait, it has been more that than anything.
I’m not lifting any cars or sleeping on the street—I’ve been
underpromoted! And that has broken my heart.”
In short order, Anti– has helped to correct a huge oversight
in popular music’s history by giving LaVette a shot at the career
she so richly deserves and one that she is certainly prepared for.
“My aspirations at this point are to make some money after
45 years,” she says simply. “Whatever the road that leads to—
provided it’s not a sell–out, which I’m not willing to do—my
making some money at long last, is the venue I will take. I’m very
glad that, because it’s taken me so long to become proficient at
this, I have a choice of venues. Because when you’re involved in a
long struggle like mine, you can’t stick to one thing; you’ve gotta
do whatever the gig calls for.”
|
Share on
 |
No comments yet... be the first! |
|
