Press

Bettye LaVette has a lot to offer these days with her new single “Crazy” available now at all digital outlets and starting Tuesday, September 18, Paste.com will exclusively stream her entire forthcoming album—Thankful N’ Thoughtful—a full week prior to release. Meanwhile, Bettye’s autobiography (co-written with David Ritz), A Woman Like Me is due out September 27.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2012/09/album-stream-bettye-lavette--thankful-n-thoughtful.html

Thankful N’ Thoughtful, Bettye’s fourth album for Anti- Records, has been showing up in the nations’ “Fall Preview” guides, including Time magazine which noted: “…her utter transformation of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’ is the highlight,” while the Wall Street Journal calls Bettye’s version “smoldering.” Elsewhere, USA Today chose “I’m Not the One,” for their “Playlist” last month stating: “LaVette puts a sassy, soulful spin on the Black Keys tune.” Produced by Craig Street (Norah Jones, Joe Henry, k.d. lang, Meshell Ndegeocello, John Legend, Charlie Sexton, etc.), the album is a selection of contemporary tracks written and previously recorded by Bob Dylan, The Black Keys, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Patty Griffin, Gnarls Barkley and others, which BETTYE consumes whole, rearranges deep within her soul and exorcises as her own through her voice filled with longing, rage, desire, despair, survival and victory. BETTYE’s voice—rough, tender, sensuous--is her instrument of inspiration and her dynamic power seethes throughout each song, wringing out the pathos, sharing her hard earned wisdom and story throughout these tales of her reinvention.

A Woman Like Me, published by Penguin/Blue Rider Press recounts Bettye’s conquest of the R&B world in the 1960s, her decline into poverty and despair, and her comeback and career revival since 2003. She burst onto the scene with her first single when she was just sixteen. It charted #7 in R&B, and put her on her first national tour. Since then she has worked with Charles "Honi" Coles, Cab Callaway, Joe Henry, David Lynch, Ringo Starr, and Sir Paul McCartney, but for many years languished without deserved recognition. A Woman Like Me is filled with stories of LaVette’s R&B lifestyle and frank accounts of a young Stevie Wonder, the Supreme diva she personally calls Diane Ross, James Brown, and more.

Bettye will be performing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno September 25, the same date her new album is released, while on the night of the book release, Bettye will be at Barnes + Noble “Upstairs at the Square” performing songs from her new album and doing a Q&A re her book. The following night Bettye will be performing at the Highline Ballroom before she heads to the west coast for a string of dates, including the world famous Troubadour on October 11 in West Hollywood.

Full itinerary is as follows:

9/27 New York, NY Barnes & Noble (book signing/Q&A)
9/28 New York, NY Highline Ballroom
9/29 Philadelphia, PA World Café Live
10/2 New York, NY Apple Store Soho (Q&A)
10/7 Phoenix. AZ MIM-Musical Instrument Museum
10/8 San Diego, CA Anthology
10/10 Los Angeles, CA LA Public Library (book signing/Q&A)
10/11 West Hollywood, CA The Troubadour
10/13 Portland, OR Wordstock
10/14 Oakland, CA Yoshi’s
10/15 San Francisco, CA Yoshi’s
10/16 Seattle, WA Earshot Jazz Festival
10/24 Fairfield, CT FTC Stage One
10/25 Boston, MA Wilbur Theatre
10/27 Washington, DC The Howard Theatre
10/28 Annapolis, MD Rams Head
11/1 Toronto, Ontario, CAN Winter Garden Theatre
11/7 Ann Arbor, MI The Ark
11/9 + 10 Chicago, IL City Winery
11/12 + 13 Minneapolis, MN The Dakota Jazz Club
11/28 The Woodlands, TX Dosey Doe Café
11/29 Dallas, TX The Kessler Theatre
MORE DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED…

Bettye LaVette's artist page