Page 36 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2025 Digital Edition

Living Legend

Bettye

LaVette

By Marty Gunther just ridiculous. Only 20-year-olds think that he or she can do
Whenever Bettye LaVette takes the stage, you know you’re anything better than I could.”
in for a treat. Possessing one of the most recognizable voices “I can’t do what a lot of singers do: sing a song that has
in the entertainment industry, emotion-packed lyrics flow two verses and then repeat the chorus 10 times… there has
deliberately from her mouth, casting a potent spell on anyone to be a story. If it’s supposed to be funny, it better be. If it’s
within earshot, fusing soul and blues. serious with cussing, the cussing needs to be there. And even
Few folks in the entertainment industry can take command though I didn’t write it, it has to sound like I wrote it myself.”
of an audience like she does. And there’s no one better at How does she do it? “I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t sit
refashioning even the most recognizable song into a tune and plan it. All I can do is sing the song the way I sing.”
that’s all her own. Throughout her career, LaVette has always remained true
She’s “like a combination of Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday to herself. Born Betty Jo Haskins in Muskegon, MI, she’s the
and Miles Davis,” according to Rolling Stones drummer Steve daughter of parents who worked in General Motors parts
Jordan. And he should know, having produced all three of and assembly plants. They raised her in Detroit, and their
her most recent Grammy-nominated albums, Things Have home served as a regular gathering place for co-workers,
Changed, Blackbird and LaVette! friends and family.
Whether Bettye’s singing tunes penned by the Stones, Bob “I joke that I was raised in an after-hours joint,” LaVette
Dylan, Dolly Parton, Joan Armatrading or Pete Townshend – chuckles, “because my folks sold corn liquor, barbeque and
as she’s done in the past – or taking a deep dive into the deep chicken sandwiches out of the house. On payday, the place
catalog of Randall Bramblett – who’s worked with everyone was packed.”
from Bonnie Raitt and Elvin Bishop to the Allman Brothers – as As a toddler, she was already entertaining, singing and
she did with LaVette!, she infuses the song with more soul and dancing along, as a jukebox in the family’s living room played
emotion than even the author knew it had. her father’s favorites, the deep blues and R&B of B.B. King and
At 79, LaVette remains at the absolute top of her game. But Louis Jordan, along with her mother’s preferences, Sinatra and
after seven nods and no wins in a career that began in 1962, the country music of Red Foley, Roy Rogers and others. Almost
she’s darned tired of the whole Grammy system, noting, “It from birth, it instilled in her the attitude that it doesn’t matter
would be fine with me if they’d just give me the nomination what you call it: if it moves you, all music is the same.
and it wasn’t such a big deal to win. It’s a big deal to lose. As a teen, Bettye dreamed of stardom as she sang along
And the thought of being in competition with a 20-year-old is with songs she heard on the radio. But growing up in the ’50s

34 Blues Festival Guide 2025