Bettye LaVette (born Betty Jo Haskins, January 29, 1946)[1] is an American soul singer who made her first record at sixteen, but achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, when her album I've Got My Own Hell to Raise was released to widespread critical acclaim, and was named on many critics' "Best of 2005" lists. Her next album, The Scene of the Crime, debuted at number one on Billboard's Top Blues Albums chart and was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 2008 Grammy Awards. She received the Legacy of Americana Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
LaVette was born in Muskegon, Michigan, and raised in Detroit.[1] Unlike many of her contemporaries, she did not begin singing in the church, but in her parents' living room, singing R&B and country and western music. She was raised as a Catholic.[3]
She was signed by Johnnie Mae Matthews, a local record producer. In 1962, aged sixteen, she recorded a single, "My Man – He's a Lovin' Man",[4] with Matthews: the disc was credited to Betty LaVett, the surname being "borrowed" from Sherma Lavette Anderson, the singer's friend who had introduced her to Matthews.[5] Picked up by Atlantic Records, LaVette's disc became a major R&B hit over the fall and winter of 1963–64 – eventually reaching the R&B Top Ten – resulting in LaVette touring with such Atlantic Records R&B hitmakers as Clyde McPhatter, Ben E. King, Barbara Lynn, and rising star Otis Redding.
After two overlooked single releases in respectively 1963 and 1964, LaVette in 1965 returned to the R&B charts with "Let Me Down Easy" on Calla Records,[4] her first release to be credited to Betty LaVette:[6] the spelling of the singer's first name as Bettye would date from her 1977 Bubbling Brown Sugar gig.[7] Though only a peripheral success with an R&B chart peak of No. 48, "Let Me Down Easy" afforded LaVette sufficient cachet to briefly tour with The James Brown Revue. After recording several singles for local Detroit labels, LaVette signed to the Silver Fox label in 1969. She cut a handful of tracks, including two Top 40 R&B hits: "He Made A Woman Out Of Me" and "Do Your Duty". The Memphis studio musicians on these recordings have since become known as The Dixie Flyers. In 1972, she signed once again with Atlantic/Atco. She was sent to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama to record what was to be her first album. Titled Child of the Seventies, it was produced by Brad Shapiro and featured the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, now known as The Swampers, but Atco chose not to issue the album.
The mid-1970s saw a brief stint and two 45s with Epic, and in 1978 LaVette released the disco smash on West End Records "Doin' The Best That I Can". In 1982, she was signed by her hometown label, Motown, and sent to Nashville to record. The resulting LP (her first album actually issued), titled Tell Me A Lie, was produced by Steve Buckingham. The first single, "Right In The Middle (Of Falling In Love)", hit the R&B Top 40. She briefly gave up recording for a six-year run in the Broadway smash Bubbling Brown Sugar,[1] appearing alongside Honi Coles and Cab Calloway.
After LaVette had played her personal mono recordings of Child of the Seventies for Gilles Petard, a French soul music collector, he sought the master recordings at Atlantic, whose personnel had previously thought they had been lost in a fire some years back.[8] In 1999, he finally discovered the masters and then licensed the album from Atlantic and released it in 2000 as Souvenirs on his Art and Soul label. At the same time, Let Me Down Easy – Live in Concert was issued by the Dutch Munich label. Both albums sparked a renewed interest in LaVette and in 2003, A Woman Like Me (produced by Dennis Walker) was released. The CD won the 2004 W. C. Handy Award for "Comeback Blues Album of the Year". In an interview, LaVette identified A Woman Like Me as the first album in the second phase of her career and said her 2012 autobiography was named after the album.[9]
After she was signed to The Rosebud Agency for live bookings, Rosebud president Mike Kappus brought her to the attention of ANTI- president Andy Kaulkin. Upon seeing LaVette perform, Kaulkin signed her to a three-record deal. For the first project, he paired her with Joe Henry, and suggested an album of songs written entirely by women. The resulting CD, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, was on many critics' "Best of 2005" lists. The title is taken from the lyrics of Fiona Apple's 1996 hit "Sleep to Dream", which is covered on the album. (Other notable songwriters on the album were Aimee Mann, Sinéad O'Connor, Lucinda Williams, Joan Armatrading, and Dolly Parton.)[10] The album was released by ANTI- and produced by Joe Henry.
In 2006, capitalizing on the success of I've Got My Own Hell To Raise and the reviews of her live shows, Child of the Seventies was reissued by Rhino Handmade with some previously unreleased tracks. The album was met with critical acclaim. Varèse Sarabande then issued Take Another Little Piece of My Heart, a CD containing all of the songs that she cut for Silver Fox and SSS International in 1969 and 1970. The CD included three unreleased tracks, as well as two duets with Hank Ballard.
Her 2007 album, The Scene of the Crime, was mostly recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with alt rockersDrive-By Truckers. The Scene of the Crime was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Contemporary Blues Album" and landed on numerous "Best of 2007" lists. LaVette talked about her experiences at Muscle Shoals Sound and FAME in an interview conducted by Edd Hurt in September 2007.[11] Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood produced the album together with LaVette. The album also features one song co-written by LaVette and Patterson Hood.[10]
In 2008, she received a Blues Music Award for "Best Contemporary Female Blues Singer". Also in 2008, Reel Music re-issued on CD her Motown LP, Tell Me A Lie. The album contained the original cover design that was not used when the LP was released.
In 2016, LaVette won a Blues Music Award as the Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year.[19]
On March 6, 2017, she took part in a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall celebrating the music of Aretha Franklin, whom she has known since 1962. Lavette performed a rendition of the song "Ain't No Way", which she mentioned was written by Carolyn Franklin, her younger sister, with whom Bettye was friends.[20]
In 2017, LaVette appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions. The film featured an interview between director Bernard MacMahon and LaVette in which they discussed her "heartfelt recollections of being pushed away from early blues as 'Uncle Tomish' in the '60s."[21] Following the interview, LaVette recorded "Nobody's Dirt Business", a song by early blues musician Frank Stokes, direct-to-disc on the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. A soundtrack for the film, entitled Music from The American Epic Sessions, also featured a second song she recorded for the film, "When I Woke Up This Morning", which L. Kent Wolgamott in the Lincoln Journal Star praised as "among its highlights."[21]
In 2018, Bettye LaVette was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.[22]
In May 2020, LaVette garnered another Blues Music Award in the "Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year" category.[24] The same year, LaVette was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[2] On August 28, 2020, she released a new studio album, Blackbirds, which is an album of songs by women from the 1950s who were the "bridge she came across on". Blackbirds was nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.
In 2021, Bettye again received the Blues Music Award for "Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year".
On February 8, 2022, LaVette's vocals from "Let Me Down Easy" were sampled as the focal point for Odesza's song, "The Last Goodbye".[25]
Personal life
LaVette is married to Kevin Kiley,[8] a recorded music and antiques dealer who is also a singer and musician. They live in West Orange, New Jersey.[26]
^La Gorce, Tammy. "MUSIC; No Longer the Best Soul Singer Nobody Knows", The New York Times, February 19, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2008. "After trying to find joy everywhere from Memphis to New York City, Ms. LaVette, a ragged-voiced veteran soul singer, fades out with the pronouncement: So I went to West Orange."
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