Page 39 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2025 Digital Edition

Blues Female Artist of the year three times, Contemporary
Blues Female Artist of the year once and picked up 17 other
nominations along the way for her albums and more, including
two for B.B. King Entertainer of the year.
A 2020 inductee in the Blues Hall of Fame, LaVette
continues to blaze a trail of excellence for others to follow
by putting a soulful, azure spin on material she’s culled from
other fields… Dylan for Things Have Changed, indigo versions
of songs recorded by Black women in the ’40s and ’50s for its
follow-up, Blackbirds, and now LaVette!, which puts a sapphire
glow on the songs of Bramblett.
A brilliant tunesmith, Bramblett’s songs carried deeply
personal messages but were overlooked by a large segment
of society. “I don’t know of anyone else who had as many
flop records as I have but him,” Bettye says. “But I think he’s
magnificent!”
It was a joy, she notes, to travel to New York City to witness
herself on the 80-foot jumbotron in Times Square and singing
her version of Bramblett’s “Hard to Be a Human.” “I couldn’t
stop crying,” she says.
At the time of print, Bettye has been trying something
new again. She’s been working with French-born vocalist
Madeleine Peyroux, selecting songs to sing together on an
upcoming tour.
What’s happening after that? Even Bettye doesn’t know.
But one thing’s for sure: it’ll be azure, and it’ll be special!

All photos by Ÿ Marilyn Stringer

The blues came calling for Marty Gunther in the 1960s, when
he witnessed the first generation of blues stars perform at
Newport. He’s senior writer at Blues Blast Magazine, pens a
column for Chicago Blues Guide and several blues societies
and has written for the Library of Congress, too.

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