Music Monday: Bettye Lavette

Sadly for me, I only discovered Betty Lavette when she released the "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise" album. Now I know that she was a Detroit soul R&B star in the early 60's. I have the sorta excuse that I was born in 1954 , but that doesn't really explain how I found so many other musicians who made music before my own time.

This interview with ReelBlack is very good. I love both the history, the reality that a great singer was neglected for so long, and the equal reality that her survival depended upon her wise response to being told that she needed to work at becoming a great singer. Hey, how many singers would spend decades working on Lush Life? (IMHO Ricky Lee Jones was not yet worthy.)



Here she is then



And now



Did The Who know that they'd be sitting with Barbara Streisand at the Lincoln Center event honoring their career? What an amazing thing to see Bettye Lavette, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltry and Barbara Streisand all present in the same musical moment.

Anyway, Bettye Lavette is wonderful. Buy anything and everything she sings.