Bettye LaVette

Bettye Lavette – LaVette! (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:10 minutes | 1,12 GB | Genre: R&B, Soul, Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Jay-Vee Inc.

Writing songs and bringing them to life is usually a two-person job. While hardcore Bob Dylan fans will argue he’s the best singer of his songs, many others, including Bettye LaVette, have sung them better. The gritty soul vocalist has built a career interpreting other songwriters and now, after giving her all to collections of tunes by Dylan and the various artists of the British Invasion, LaVette has turned her interpretive gifts to the work of Randall Bramblett. Bramblett had a pair of unjustly ignored solo records in the ’70s, but has been on something of a comeback since hooking up with New West records in the early aughts. Comebacks have also become LaVette’s specialty. Since cutting her first record in 1962 (which made it onto the R&B charts) at age 16, LaVette has toured with James Brown, made a great record in Muscle Shoals that was shelved for over 35 years, and even had a disco hit.

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Bettye Lavette – Let Me Down Easy: Bettye LaVette In Memphis (Sun Records 70th / Remastered 2022) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:25 minutes | 787 MB | Genre: R&B, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sun Records

Looking back on the career of a living legend, Let Me Down Easy: Bettye LaVette in Memphis captures the recordings she made in the 1960s for Silver Fox Records, part of the Sun Records family celebrating 70 years. Blending her northern R&B with southern soul, this remastered retrospective includes tracks like the rocking “He Made a Woman Out of Me”, her explosive cover of “Piece of My Heart”, and “Let Me Down Easy”, which was recently featured by the electronic duo ODESZA.
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Bettye LaVette – Things Have Changed (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:04 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Blues, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve

A great, revived soul voice. Politically-conscious songs from the Great American Songbook. This project harks back to the 1960s (and beyond), but it finds a strong echo in today’s America, divided and rocked by President Trump… By dedicating the whole record to covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Bettye LaVette makes her voice heard, literally and figuratively. Produced by Steve Jordan, Things Have Changed which features, amongst others, Keith Richards and Trombone Shorty, alternates between warm, vintage soul, and funkier bursts of real rock’n’roll. Above all, the 72-year old soul artist from Michigan continues to prove that she has a lot of singing in her yet.
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Bettye LaVette – Thankful n’ Thoughtful (Deluxe Edition) (2012/2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:09 minutes | 1,26 GB | Genre: R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

R&B Legend Bettye LaVette is set to mark her 50th anniversary in the music world with the upcoming release of her mesmerizing album, ‘Thinking N’ Thoughtful’.

Produced by Craig Street (Norah Jones, Joe Henry, k. d. lang, Meshell Ndegeocello, John Legend, Charlie Sexton, etc.), TN’T is a selection of contemporary tracks written and previously recorded by Bob Dylan, The Black Keys, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Patty Griffin, Gnarls Barkley and others, which BETTYE consumes whole, rearranges deep within her soul and exorcises as her own through her voice filled with longing, rage, desire, despair, survival and victory. BETTYE’s voice—rough, tender, sensuous–is her instrument of inspiration and her dynamic power seethes throughout each song, wringing out the pathos, sharing her hard earned wisdom and story throughout these tales of her reinvention.

Thankful N’ Thoughtful opens with the funk injected Bob Dylan cut “Everything Is Broken” and when Bettye moans and howls the title refrain you have no doubt as to the trouble she’s seen. The entire album turned out to be a companion piece to her autobiography as while she was writing the book, she was also recording the songs on TN’T. On Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” she slows it down just a tad, then wrings every drop of sweat and blood from each and every syllable till your spine tingles, with “Dirty Old Town” (The Pogues / Rod Stewart), Bettye reworks the lyrical setting to Detroit—singing about her first love at Northern High and the Detroit race riots. Meanwhile, when she takes on The Black Keys’ “I’m Not The One,” the sensual grit of the song sizzles with her all-knowing rasp. “I’m Not the One” is now available at all digital outlets and the video from the Rolling Stone website can be seen below.
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Bettye LaVette – Blackbirds (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:17 minutes | 903 MB | Genre: Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve

Blues Hall of Famer and five-time Grammy-nominee Bettye LaVette returns with a new album, `Blackbirds,’ produced by Steve Jordan. Features songs primarily popularized by peers-other iconic women in music-who she respected and admired. Set for release August 28th, it finds her in top form delivering powerful renditions of songs that touched her personally. Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”, Nina Simone’s “I Hold No Grudge” & more, all in LaVette’s rich and raspy tone with a touch of the blues.
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