Blues
Her 2005 acclaimed release, "I've Got My Own Hell To Raise", brought well-deserved recognition to this R&B maverick who's been recording since the early 60s. Now comes the almost autobiographical "Scene Of The Crime". To make music this raw and direct, Bettye enlisted "dirty south" rockers The Drive By Truckers as her backup band. With swampy guitars, slippery Wurlitzer piano, and a driving backline, this record conjures up the spirit of great loose 70s bands like the Faces while offering Bettye an urgent, vital setting for her razor-sharp vocals. Recorded in Muscle Shoals, AL, where she recorded "Child Of The Seventies" in 1972 - a masterpiece that was shelved then released 30 years later. Returning to Muscle Shoals was like returning to the scene of a crime; thus the album title, and the intense, personal music within.
By Unknown.
**
Even after all these years, the crime in question on Bettye LaVette's new album still riles her. "The Scene of the Crime" is a pointed reference to LaVette returning to Muscle Shoals, Ala., the fabled Southern city whose recording studios gave soul music many of its touchstones, most notably Aretha Franklin's string of late-'60s classics.
LaVette recorded in Muscle Shoals once, back in 1972, and she considered the album, "Child of the Seventies," a pivotal achievement. Too bad Atlantic Records, her label at the time, didn't agree and shelved the record and never released it in the United States. (It was finally released here last year on Rhino Handmade.)
But with "The Scene of the Crime," which is out today on Anti- Records, LaVette avenges that misstep with an album as lean, mean, and gritty as the cover image of someone behind a steering wheel, peering into the rearview mirror with windshield wipers in motion.
LaVette, in case you hadn't heard, was the comeback story of 2005. A mainstay on the club circuit but unknown to the masses, LaVette released "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise" on Anti-. It turns out she was just clearing her throat with that celebrated album; on "Scene," she delivers on the promise that her best work lies ahead of her.
This time she's backed by Drive-By Truckers, a down-and-dirty Southern-rock band based in Athens, Ga. It all comes full circle: The group's leader, guitarist Patterson Hood, is the son of bassist David Hood, who co-owned Muscle Shoals Sound Studios back when LaVette first recorded there. Keyboardist Spooner Oldham, a Muscle Shoals stalwart, also plays on the album.
As with "I've Got My Own Hell," LaVette interprets other people's songs, but her palette and taste are vast and unexpected, from George Jones's "Choices" to Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "Talking Old Soldiers." In a hardened rasp reminiscent of Tina Turner back in the days with Ike, LaVette grinds out the lyrics with a gut-wrenching intensity perfectly suited to the Truckers' aggressive rock instrumentation.
"I don't hear music," LaVette says from her home in New Jersey. "I hear words, and I want to position the words in a way that I can sing them. I don't like rehearsals, and I don't go into a studio to discover something."
You can hear what she's talking about on "Somebody Pick Up My Pieces," one of Willie Nelson's after-hours country ballads. The accompaniment is so faint it's nearly vaporous, with a soft brush of drums tapping out a semblance of a beat. For the most part, the band stays out of her way.
And "Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette)," which LaVette co-wrote with Hood, is her incredible life story concentrated into 4 1/2 minutes. "All my friends on the Grammy shows/ I was stuck in Detroit trying to open doors/ Record deals kept falling apart/ One with Atlantic nearly broke my heart," she sings, again referring to "Child of the Seventies."
"Because I was never successful and never had a big hit, I've had to a do a lot of different things in my career," she says. "So I think it's good for these guys to play something differently and broaden their approach. Because let me tell you: I'm as broad as I'm going to get."
By James Reed, Globe Newspaper Staff.
**
Is there a more wrenching soul singer alive than Bettye LaVette? If so, keep it to yourself, because I'm too wrung out from The Scene of the Crime's intensity to take anything more emotionally potent. Following 2005's Joe Henry-produced comeback disc, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood assumes the producer's chair, and his band, the raggedy backup. The hard-livin' laments aren't always easy listening, so it's a relief to get to ''Before the Money Came,'' on which LaVette rejoices at age 61 in finally getting paid!
By Chris Willman
**
Bettye LaVette- Vocals, Main Performer
Patterson Hood- Guitar, Producer, Liner Notes
John Neff- Guitar, Pedal Steel
Spooner Oldham- Piano, Wurlitzer
Kelvin Holly- Guitar
David Hood- Bass
Brad Morgan- Drums
Shonna Tucker- Bass
Sum Haque- Piano
Mike Cooley- Guitar
**
01. I Still Want to Be Your Baby (Take Me Like I Am) (3:45)
02. Choices (3:04)
03. Jealousy (5:36)
04. You Don't Know Me at All (3:58)
05. Somebody Pick Up My Pieces (5:22)
06. They Call It Love (3:57)
07. The Last Time (2:58)
08. Talking Old Soldiers (4:26)
09. Before the Money Came (4:30)
10. I Guess We Shouldn't Talk About That Now (3:46)
**
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