Bettye LaVette: The Great Lady of Soul
Congratulation to Bettye LaVette for winning Best Soul Blues Female Artist of 2016
at
The Blues Music Awards
on May 5, 2016, in Memphis, Tennessee.
Bettye LaVette is a true legend with a musical career spanning more than 50 years, she is now rightly recognized as one of the finest vocalists and one of the great interpreters of song. Her discography spans five decades, but it is within the past decade that she has finally been recognized as one of America’s finest vocal talents.
Her latest Grammy-nominated album, Worthy, features 11 songs composed by writers such as Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Bob Dylan, John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Mickey Newbury, Beth Nielsen Chapman & Mary Gauthier (who wrote the album title track) and producer Joe Henry among others.
As Joe Henry says; “With every song on Worthy, Bettye finds the thread that first will unravel it. Then she stitches it all back together until it fits her taut frame and fierce stride, until it bends to meet her; until each song’s story is somehow, miraculously, telling her own”.
Click here to order a personally-autographed copy
.
Bettye and Jon Bon Jovi had the honor of performing Sam Cooke's revered anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come"
for the Inaugural Celebration "We Are One" at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, January 1 2009.
"The Kennedy Center Honors was the most exciting thing I have every done in my life, because there were so many of my favorite politicians there", says Grammy-nominated singer, Bettye LaVette. "And this year has been the greatest year of my life. Who would have ever imagined both Barack and I going to the White House?!" - I LOVE to hear this man's voice introducing me... :)
"Bettye LaVette proved to give the powerhouse performance of the evening at the Kennedy Center Honors when she sang her unparalleled version of "Love Reign O'er Me"as part of the Who tribute. The Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl recently described his first encounter with Bettye's rendition of the song to Air America's Richard Greene: "We showed up for rehearsal, and one of the performers was rehearsing the song for the Who segment. It was a woman named Bettye LaVette… She is gonna steal the show. She was so phenomenal, this performance of The Who song that she did. It will bring you to tears. The room was pin-drop silent when she did this song, and it was just unbelievable."
Show-stealing Bettye LaVette wows fellow artists at the Kennedy Center Honors with her interpretation of The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me". On his blog at TheWho.com, the legendary axe-slinger said, "My favorite moment was when Bettye LaVette sang a very fine version of 'Love Reign O'er Me' at the Gala and Barbra Streisand turned to ask me if I really wrote it!"
"A Woman Like Me" was nominated in Living Blues Magazine Reader's Poll for "Best Book of 2012".
"Her use of vocal texture, of which she has lots of shades, is perfect and really involves you with the track. Worthy is well worth the wait." - Express (London)
Bettye LaVette’s hilarious and harrowing new autobiography, A Woman Like Me. Clearly, this isn’t a woman prone to holding back." - New York Daily News
Get personally-signed CDs & LPs from Bettye LaVette and listen to track samples. "An extraordinary discovery in a blues voice." - Pete Townshend
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