Bettye LaVette!

Friday is music. And so there’s playlists. Today it’s all about the great Bettye LaVette. Why? Why Not! Oh, and also, she has a brand new album for you all to hear. So, so good. As always.

Sometime in the early/mid 00s I saw Bettye LaVette live. In Wellington. A 20-minute stroll from my house. It was incredible. She was the middle-act on a blues bill and the other players that night were great – of course. But seeing Bettye LaVette was a eureka moment for me. She was raw and real and she had killer songs, and a hell of a voice. She’d been through the wringer by that point – and she was out the other side and on the way to redeeming her recording career.

I bought the live album from the merch-stand. And played it for days. For years. I talked about her to anyone that would listen. I sold what I could in the store where I worked. And I kept singing the praises of Dr. Rodger Fox (I still do!) He was the one that had got her to New Zealand. People here had never heard of her. Or they’d forgotten all about her. My mum used to play me Bettye LaVette songs – alongside Etta James and Tina Turner and Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and Mavis Staples and Ann Peebles and Billie Holiday and Nancy Wilson. Jazz, blues, funk, soul, R’n’B – that was the music mum played most often, and it opened new worlds to me. Most of the names on that list are known, but not many people seemed to know much about Bettye LaVette.

She recorded some sides as a teenager and though I only knew a couple of her songs from a couple of the compilations we listened to and loved, I remembered the name in an instant and couldn’t believe my luck when I knew I’d be seeing her live. She’s carried on making music – or trying to – but the promising start got tied up in red-tape, got taken away from her.

Bettye LaVette was chewed up and spat out by the record business. But she kept on fighting. And in the early 2000s she returned to record-making, and started to get noticed.

It was 2005’s I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise that started this triumphant second run. A set of cover versions by female writers (and stars), the record features LaVette delivering knockout versions you know and love already, because you’ve heard them when they were first made by Sinead O’Connor and Dolly Parton and Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple and Joan Armatrading.

After that, Bettye made a terrific album with Drive-By Truckers. I was just getting into the Truckers at the time, part of what sold me was hearing them operate as a Muscle Shoals-styled backing band (which is literally in their blood, but that’s another story). The Scene of the Crime is a gem – and I somewhat regret selling my LP at the record fair a couple of years ago. But I sold it to someone that was buying it on a whim, and I got to talk to them about Bettye and the Truckers like I was back in a record store, all excited to be passing on knowledge about music. Sealing the deal, making a sale, sharing that love. So that made it worth it.

Some of the covers on 2015’s Worthy are so sublime. Radical reworkings of big, big tunes by Dylan and The Beatles and The Stones. And Bettye does it in that way where she combines the best elements of Mavis Staples and Tina Turner and so much more. She brings her lived experience to her versions of songs.

A couple of years on from that it was all Dylan, with Things Have Changed. And I don’t always dig complete covers albums filled up with Dylan, because I want to hear Bob rather than someone pouring all of their Dylan love into one tiny cup. But Bettye dug deep and picked lesser known gems, deep cuts, she concentrated on the 1980s – a period that was so often ignored when people get to talking about Bob Dylan’s best work, but I’ve always loved the 80s albums because they’re the ones I heard first.

Blackbirds was another themed-covers album, mostly made up of songs originally performed by female African-Americans, though the title song is The Beatles classic; well I guess it was providing the title/concept for the album…

Anyway, it’s up there with most of the other albums she’s made, but maybe it’s not quite as good as the real top tier stuff.

You can hear the best of the early years on this handy compilation:

And, you can hear the brand new album that is out today!

I’m listening to it for the first time as I’m writing this. It’s instantly wonderful. That warm voice. And a batch of great songs – this time it’s all material penned by Randall Bramblett. He’s a journeyman musician and songwriter, a dozen or so solo albums to his name, but possibly better known for his sideman duties with the likes of Elvin Bishop and the Allman Brothers/Gregg Allman. He writes southern soul balladry in the style of Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn. The sorts of songs where you can’t go wrong…sitting there listening to characters that feel they can’t get it right.

Bettye’s band for her new album features the incredible Pino Palladino on bass (Google him for an embarrassment of riches – who else could amass credits that include D’Angelo, Tears for Fears, Nine Inch Nails, Paul Young and Spinal Tap!) And Bob Dylan’s guitarist Larry Campbell is in there. What a player. Drummer and producer is Steve Jordan. He’s been Bettye’s right-hand-man for the last few records. He’s a monster player, he’s worked with Keith Richards and was part of the Blues Brothers Band, he was Musical Director of the SNL band for a time, worked with John Mayer (in the trio – the only music Mayer’s made that I have found close to interesting) and he’s now the touring drummer for The Rolling Stones; perhaps the only person who could ever get close to Charlie’s feel, while being able to do his own thing always. He’s also produced records for a bunch of musicians, right across the musical spectrum. He’s one of my favourite musicians.

But all of this is in service to Bettye. And her voice. And the songs she chooses to take on a new journey.

LaVette! That’s the name of Bettye’s new album.

You’ve got to hear it. Add it to the list of great Bettye LaVette albums. That warmth and deep soul in her sound. That vulnerability in the readings she gives of songs. The arrangements and production. All of it so perfect. So very, very good.

I just felt like sharing some love around Bettye LaVette. Her music always helps. Her music always seems like the correct choice. Her music is good for Fridays. And great for the weekend. So I wanted to hype this new record, and put it near your ears. I hope you enjoy.

And, well, since it’s the weekend – or very nearly – we have our regular weekend playlist too. This one features more instrumental pieces than is usually the case. But wait for the vocals. They’re there. Some great vocal tunes on this one too. I hope you find something on there that’s interesting, or great, or worth your time…

So, any Bettye LaVette fans out there? Or anyone eager to dive in and give the new one a go?

Happy listening! And thanks, as always, for reading.