Bettye LaVette

Bettye LaVette is hailed as one of the greatest soul singers in American music history, due to her incredibly expressive voice that one moment will exude a formidable level of strength and intensity and the next will appear vulnerable, reflective, reeking of heartbreak. LaVette has been recording for over four decades beginning with her first record at age16. But despite signing with Atlantic Records in 1972 and Motown a decade later, she remained criminally unknown until her 2005 release, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise. Rock/Alt-Country outfit Drive-By Truckers served as the back-up band for her 2007 album, Child of the Seventies. In December 2008 at the Kennedy Center Honors, LaVette delivered a stunning rendition of “Love Reign O’er Me” in tribute to Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who, who were among the year’s honorees. Most recently, she performed a duet at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” with Jon Bon Jovi. Check out her site at www.BettyeLaVette.com.