Bettye LaVette - Soul Legend Signs to Anti

Bettye LaVette - Soul Legend Signs to Anti

LOS ANGELES, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Bettye LaVette, one of the supreme voices in soul music, has been signed by Anti- Records. Her first album for the label will be released in the autumn.

Ms. LaVette will be working with artist and producer Joe Henry, who was also responsible for Solomon Burke's Grammy-winning "Don't Give Up On Me" album in 2002. Recording sessions for Bettye LaVette's album are scheduled to start next month.

This will be 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 - He's a Lovin' Man' which was released by Atlantic Records, the first of many nationwide record labels for whom Bettye LaVette recorded during the Sixties and Seventies.

In a recent NY Times review, critic Jon Pareles noted of LaVette's live performance: "It was pure, magnificent soul: passion carried by an eloquent voice and exquisite timing. And she was only getting started...Her voice was wounded and tough, and she deployed it shrewdly, starting with quiet, coiled phrases, rising to gritty moans and lashing out in quick staccato outbursts."

In addition, 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."

Although she never achieved the level of commercial success her extraordinary talents deserved, Bettye LaVette's music has long since made an indelible impression on soul fans around the world -- in the UK, for instance, she was one of the pivotal artists in the 1970's Northern Soul movement.

Among the labels for which she has recorded are Motown, Calla, Atco, Epic, Silver Fox, West End, SSS International and Street King. Her classic tunes include 'Piece of My Heart' -- a recording that clearly influenced Janis Joplin's version of the song -- and 'Your Turn To Cry', a mesmerizing deep soul performance released as a single by Atlantic's Atco label in 1972.

Anti- Records is also the label home of such artists as Tom Waits, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Marianne Faithfull, Neko Case, The Frames, Jolie Holland and Daniel Lanois as well as the aforementioned Solomon Burke album. Says Anti president, Andy Kaulkin: "The consistent quality of Bettye's work over the last 40-plus years is amazing. From her creative song choices to the fire of her performances, she has always stood apart. This great artist has been seriously slept on, and we want to do everything we can to change that."

For further information Hilary Okun Anti- Records 213-413-7353 hilary@epitaph.com

Source: Anti- Records

CONTACT: Hilary Okun for Anti- Records, +1-213-413-7353, hilary@epitaph.com

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