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Bettye LaVette On World Cafe

Bettye LaVette.
Mark Seliger
/
Courtesy of the artist
Bettye LaVette.

Bettye LaVette's voice illuminates the definition of a true soul singer. It pierces through the physical and awakens the listener's emotional core. A soul singer's voice is only amplified through experience, and as Bettye told me when we spoke, "I've got so much stuff to cry about, and so much stuff to holler about, and so much stuff to laugh about."

In 1962, when Bettye was just 16, she put out her first single. It got picked up by Atlantic Records. Bettye was a new mom and left her daughter in the care of her own mother and sister to go out on tour with Ben E. Kingand a man who wasn't famous yet but would be — Otis Redding.

Since then, Bettye's career has been filled with ups and downs, including record deals that didn't work out, albums that didn't chart and watching many of her contemporaries go on to get rich (something that Bettye has grappled with over the years and addressed with jarring honesty during our conversation.) Despite Bettye's rocky relationship with the industry, she says, "People have always believed in my voice and have tried to help me."

Bettye's latest album Things Have Changed is the singer's interpretation of a dozen songs by Bob Dylan. Bettye's life experiences and musical arrangements add a whole new depth to the folk star's lyrics, especially on his 1985 song "Emotionally Yours." You can hear that song and her story of meeting Dylan in person by listening to our conversation in the player.

World Cafe intern Cyrena Touros contributed to this story.

Copyright 2021 XPN. To see more, visit XPN.

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.