Dan Aykroyd, Bettye LaVette and Hubert Sumlin at the performance to mark the release of Dan's and Ben Manilla's new book.

Bettye performs for Dan Aykroyd Special

Bettye performed with an all star group of musicians on Sirius radio network to mark the release of Dan Aykroyd's and Ben Manilla's new book Elwood's Blues - Interviews with Blues Legends and Stars.

The show also starred Mose Allison, Hubert Sumlin, Michael Hill, David Maxwell, Jerry Jemmott, "Blue" Lou Marini, Calvin Owens, Terry Silverlight, Nikki Armstrong, Ben Griffin, Dan Aykroyd and Rob Paparozzi.

Bettye with the Sirius Blues Band.

 

New Documentary: Blues Divas

Greg Cahill - Metroactive Music

"BLUES DIVAS ", an upcomin 8-part public TV series enlists such incredible blues-women as Bettye LaVette, Odetta, Irma Thomas, Ann Peebles, Mavis Staples, Deborah Coleman, Denise La Salle and Renee Austin. "

Filmmaker Robert Mugge really didn't know much about Bettye LaVette when Alligator Records owner Bruce Iglauer invited the award-winning documentarian to catch the singer last January at a Chicago blues club.. LaVette proved a revelation even to blues buff Mugge.

"Bettye just blows you away with the drama of her performance", he says of LaVette. She's like an actress inhabiting a role. She either paces or dances across the stage and just gets so deeply into these songs - she begs and pleads and cries. You're just almost overwhelmed by the emotion of it all."

Thanks to Mugge - who has included LaVette in an upcoming eight-part public TV series called "Blues Divas" - a lot of folks are going to fall under LaVette's spell. North Bay audiences got a chance to preview two installments in the Blues Divas series - one featuring LaVette, the other showcasing folkblues legend Odetta - when they premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October.

"Blues Divas" also enlists such incredible blues-women as Irma Thomas, Ann Peebles, Mavis Staples, Deborah Coleman, Denise La Salle and Renee Austin - to serve as tour guides. Filmed in the heartland of the blues in Clarksdale, Miss., at actor Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Nightclub, the 2hr-long films presented in Mill Valley incorporate recent concert footage (shot during one long weekend) and intimate interviews conducted by Freeman, a Clarksdale resident and fellow blues buff.

Mugge points out that the series title, "Blues Diva", fits these talented, but under-appreciated, performers quite well. "Many of them just have a regal air about them that lets you know you're dealing with a Queen".

"They know how good they are, they know what they've accomplished. Society may not have recognized their contributions to the extent that it should and in this current pabulum youth culture that passes for popular culture, these women may be totally on the fringes, but they know history will record how good they are". "One of the reasons I'm doing this series," he continues, "is because it's criminal if they are not documented doing what they are so brilliant at."

All of the BLUES DIVAS programs, including the 2-hour compilation program, and Bettye LaVette's own longform program, will be out on DVD from Image Entertainment early next year (2006). I'm sure that these programs will be priced comparably to other music programs of this sort. Possibly even sooner, you should also be able to see the 2-hour program on Starz's black channel.

Robert Mugge (producer-director)