Artist Bettye LaVette

Website
Bettye LaVette

Soul singer Bettye LaVette began her career in 1962 at age 16, scoring a hit right away with “My Man, He’s A Loving Man.” But success proved hard to replicate. For the next 30 years, LaVette moved from label to label and style to style, cutting singles that bigger names such as Tina Turner and Bobbie Gentry would popularize. 2003’s A Woman Like Me caught the attention of the Anti- label, which snared her for 2005’s I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise, and 2007’s collaboration with Drive-By Truckers, The Scene Of The Crime, a slab of edgy, raw, uncompromising Southern soul that has sparked a renewed interest in her career. More recently, she performed Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” at Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Updated 06/04/2009