Thu 2/12 @ 8PM
Michigan-born soul singer Bettye LaVette is kicking off 2015 with a bang with a new album called Worthy, which she certainly is. Now 69, she had a flicker of success as a teenager in the early ’60s, followed by decades of near misses where promising opportunities never led to the success she undeniably deserved.
But with 2005’s I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, featuring covers of songs by contemporary woman artists like Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams and Aimee Mann, released on eclectic alternative label ANTI-, she came to the attention of an indie rock and hipster crowd. That has greatly expanded her audience, and brought her attention beyond a cult following of collectors.
She’s now touring to promote Worthy, co-produced with singer/songwriter Joe Henry. The album features her distinctive versions of tunes by Lennon/McCarthy (“Wait”), Jagger/Richards (“Complicated”) and Dylan (“Unbelievable”) as well as more obscure songwriters such as Linford Detwieler of Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine whose “Undamned” is also one of the disc’s 11 tracks. Undoubtedly the fact that the OTR album it’s from, 2011’s The Long Surrender, was also produced by Henry is probably not an accident.
LaVette will be performing the Music Box Supper Club. Tickets are $38 in advance, $42 at the door.
musicboxcle.com/bettye-lavette/