Bettye Lavette

Five-time Grammy-nominee and Blues Hall of Fame inductee Bettye LaVette releases a new album, Blackbirds, produced by Steve Jordan, on Verve Records. It features songs primarily popularized by women who were the “bridge she came across on.” These women helped to set the stage for Bettye and her contemporaries.The album finds LaVette in top form with powerful renditions of songs that touched her personally. From Dinah Washington’s Drinking Again, Nina Simone’s I Hold No Grudge, Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, Nancy Wilson’s Save Your Love For Me and more, they are all delivered in LaVette’s rich and raspy tone and a touch of the blues. Blackbirds takes Bettye back to her roots, honoring her heritage as an R&B singer and the women who came before her. LaVette A&R’d and sequenced the record herself – her first true curation.

LaVette! hits all the marks. Together with Jay-Vee Records, Bettye has the freedom to explore new territory. Produced by Steve Jordan, LaVette! features 11 songs written by Georgia-born musician Randall Bramblett, who has been releasing solo albums since 1975. “Randall is the best writer that I have heard in the last 30 years,” says Bettye. “He writes songs that are little soliloquies, they’re like little stories about a moment, or a thing.” Bettye is backed by Jordan on drums, Pino Palladino on bass, Larry Campbell on guitar, Leon Pendarvis on keyboards, and Chris Bruce on guitar. Guest artists include: John Mayer, Jon Batiste, Anthony Hamilton, Steve Winwood, Ray Parker Jr., Rev. Charles Hodges, James Carter and Pedrito Martinez, to name a few. Even if you didn’t know the sharp twists and turns of Bettye LaVette’s story, or for that matter, her wide-ranging influences—you can hear the traces of all of it in her voice.

"I can feel the pain, Lord, it's raining in my heart," Bettye LaVette howls on "The Forecast," and it sounds like it. On this stunning comeback - her first American release in over 20 years - the feisty soul singer rips through an hour of music with the pent-up hunger of a caged tiger at feeding time. Helped immeasurably by producer/songwriter Dennis Walker, best known for his breakout work with Robert Cray, LaVette moans, screams, shouts, pleads, and growls her way through a dozen tracks that'll leave even the most jaded R&B fan begging for more. One of the casualties of music biz politics, LaVette has a style that has only sharpened with age. In her mid-fifties at the time of this recording, the singer has a husky voice that tears at the edges, adding deeper emotion…