Another old school singer (literally, in this case) is Bettye LaVette. Many of you probably heard of her recently. She sang at the pre-inaugural concert for Obama in 2009, and has been getting more notice. LaVette started singing in the '60s as a teen, but literally simply never made it. For example, an album she recorded in 1972 was never released--until recently! LaVette has that gritty, soulful voice that you associate with the best of blues, R&B, and soul, a voice that sounds as if she's been smoking, drinking, and hoarse from yelling. She's a phenomenal talent. It's sad, amazing, and uplifting all at once that going on five decades later, she's just now making it. A real loss for the music world, but then, in the music business, the truth is that most of the real talent never gets to see success...
********************************************** Watch a clip of LaVette singing for NPR's "Fresh Air": http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127043684 NPR "Fresh Air" Interview: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=99777150&m=99777891 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99777150 January 23, 2009 - If you've never heard of Bettye LaVette, the soul singer who belted out "A Change Is Gonna Come" with Jon Bon Jovi at the Inauguration Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on Jan 18., you may be wondering why. There's a good reason: After a promising start in the early 1960s, when LaVette had a couple of singles that became R&B hits, things just didn't work out for her. The 1972 album she recorded for Atlantic that was supposed to be her breakthrough wasn't released until 2000 when a French producer licensed it from Atlantic and started her comeback. She released her most recent CD, The Scene Of The Crime , in 2007... December 17, 2007 - Bettye LaVette recorded her first hit, "My Man — He's a Lovin' Man," at the age of 16. She toured with Ben E. King, Barbara Lynn and Otis Redding. And now she's being crowned the Comeback Queen for her recent albums, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise , which came out in 2005, and her recent The Scene of the Crime . LaVette recorded The Scene of the Crime at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., with the Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers and the legendary session musician and songwriter Spooner Oldham. (He played on Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" and Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man.") Most of the songs on the record are covers of soul classics that LaVette's husband, a record historian, played around the house, but she wrote the song "Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette)" herself at the prompting of Patterson Hood, guitarist and vocalist for the Drive-By Truckers. The Scene of the Crime isn't the first record LaVette made at FAME studios; a disc she cut there in 1972 was shelved by Atlantic. Those songs didn't see the light of day until the French label Art and Soul released it in 2000. Called Souvenirs , it reinvigorated LaVette's career and led to her signing with Anti Records in 2003. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127043684 May 21, 2010 We were not prepared for Bettye LaVette's appearance in the NPR Music offices. We thought we were — having set up our cameras and recording gear and signed in all the friends who had heard she was scheduled to play and beaten down our door. But then she blew into the room and conquered it before she'd sung a single note. She teased Bob Boilen mercilessly and told all the women how beautiful they were. She had reporters and producers doing her bidding all over the building. But after we cleared a spot for her to perch on the corner of Bob's desk, she went to work. The first song she sang, a cover of Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy," killed the room. LaVette hunched her shoulders, dropped her chin and yanked the song out of her throat. It felt like a confession. Every movement she made — whether she threw her head back in a desperate wail or drooped it to close a phrase signifying defeat — shoved further meaning into the words. Her voice was bruising, shocking, and she sang really loud. Before she began, LaVette asked us to close the blinds. It was 3 in the afternoon, but she said she was about to sing some night songs. She sang end of the night songs: "It Don't Come Easy," "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," "Nights in White Satin." (Due to licensing issues, only "It Don't Come Easy" is available in the video above, at least for the time being.) But she took those songs — glammed up and kindly lit in the recordings we remember — and tore off their clothes. She wrestled them to the ground. It was a real performance, from which each of us emerged a little sore. At the end, LaVette's accompanist — Alan Hill, who had trained a gimlet eye on LaVette all the while — registered his approval. "We should play more office parties," he said. ----- Original Message ----- From: "B Smith" <daikaij...@yahoo.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, September 3, 2010 3:23:49 PM Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: Waayyy OT: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings I like them in small doses but Sharon does the damn thing and their live shows are epic. I liked at first Amy Winehouse but that crap of crowning her the new face of soul music really galled me. She was just trend jumping like a lot of other singers do and she blew up. Good recommendations from your e-mail. I'd add Soulive, Jamie Lidell, Joss Stone(especially her work with Raphael Saadiq) and Cee-lo Green as folks you might want to seek out. --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com , Keith Johnson <keithbjohn...@...> wrote: > > Enjoy! I got the following from a lady in response to the e-mail: > > FYI they have been around for quite a while...The Dap Kings moonlight as the > band for Amy Winehouse as well. If you like them and that retro soul feel, > also check out Raphael Saadiq, Rahsaan Patterson, and this young funky white > kid Mayer Hawthorne... > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Martin Baxter" <martinbaxt...@...> > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Friday, September 3, 2010 2:20:02 PM > Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Waayyy OT: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings > > > > > > > Thanks, Keith! I'll have a look/listen as soon as I clear my table here and > pay some bills. > > > On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 12:22 PM, Keith Johnson < keithbjohn...@... > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > I'm always searching for "real" music that's outside of the standard > hip-hip/finger poppin'/dance heavy stuff played on commercial radio (how many > times in one day can one stomach Beyonce Knowles, Lady Gaga, or Bieber???) A > while back I heard an interview on "Fresh Air" with a group called Sharon > Jones and the Dap-Kings. This group is amazing, with a sound that hails back > to the days of good old soul and funk. Jones has that rich, raspy voice that > lends itself to heartfelt, even painful renditions, and her band sounds like > something straight out of Stax records. They use old-fashioned methods to > record: real tapes, hand editing, actual acoustics caused by the recording > room instead of computer manipulations. Very, very good stuff. Albums are on > iTunes: I bought two straightaway after listening to the NPR interview. > > Go to their web site to be treated to a listen to some of their latest songs, > which start playing automatically. The first song up is "I Learned the Hard > Way", which has a real old feel to it. Other recent songs you have to seek > out are "Humble Me" and the awesome "100 Days, 100 Nights", which sounds as > if it came straight off an actual record from the 60s. > > Two links below. The first is to their website, where you can hear some of > their songs. The second is to a great NPR SXSW showcase in Austin where > Jones' group was the headliner. There you can hear the entire gig they > performed, which is close to an a hour long. Highly recommended!! > > > http://www.sharonjonesandthedapkings.com/ > > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124091931 > > > > > > > > > -- > "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell > wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik >
