From the ACL Taping Program on April 20, 2008:
There are few vocalists today that have transgressed various musical genres with the same flare and grace of Bettye LaVette. This soulful songstress started her career at age 16 and through the years her repertoire has included blues, country and rock.
Soul Patrol writes, “Bettye LaVette is a 100 percent, pure unadulterated soul singer. If it’s comparisons you are looking for, just think of the space right between Etta James and Aretha Franklin and that’s right where you will find Bettye LaVette. There is POWER in this woman’s voice!”
Tonight, the legendary singer performs her classic hits and new songs from her latest release,
The Scene of the Crime. For this CD, LaVette teamed up with Southern-soul team the Drive-By Truckers, to record songs from artists including Willie Nelson and Elton John, adding a personal touch. “LaVette is a proud interpreter … Here she handles Willie Nelson’s “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces” like one of Ray Charles’ legendary country excursions, and tackles Elton John’s “Talking Toy Soldiers” with the kind of gritty gusto John could never muster.”[
Pitchfork]
PopMatters writes, “Scene of the Crime has moments of profundity that are unique to LaVette’s particular method of owning a song. [It] is music without a shelf life. Gut-wrenching performances never go out of style.” Whatever the song or style, LaVette brings soul to the counter. “I’m a soul singer,” LaVette said. “I don’t know how to sing any other way. If it’s me and my singing you like, this is what I’m singing today.”
From the ACL Taping Program on April 20, 2008:
Earning multiple Grammy nominations and recording all-star blues CDs is not the way most 90-somethings spend their days, but Austin’s Pinetop Perkins is doing just that.
“Perkins is still going at full speed,” wrote
Rolling Stone. “Perkins belies his years with deft, assured keyboard work. … He sings with relaxed charm.” Regarded as one of the greatest blues pianists of all time, Perkins began playing the blues in the late 1920s. He started out playing guitar and piano, but had to stop playing guitar in the ’40s after sustaining a serious injury in his left arm. Perkins worked primarily in the Mississippi Delta throughout the ‘30s and ‘40s. Until his recent solo work, he was best known for his decade of work in the Muddy Waters Band and his time with the Legendary Blues Band in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
After years of collaborating with others, he released his first solo CD in 1988. His work was soon earning Grammy nominations and he received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005. In 2008, Perkins received a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album for
Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live In Dallas together with Henry James Townsend, Robert Lockwood, Jr. & David Honeyboy Edwards. He was also nominated in the same category for his solo album,
Pinetop Perkins on the 88’s: Live in Chicago.
Earlier this year, he recorded
Pinetop Perkins and Friends, an album of blues standards that includes numerous guest musicians – Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Jimmy Vaughan, Nora Jean Bruso, and many others. The album is set for release in June of this year, just a few weeks before Perkins’ 95th birthday.
