Over a career that spans well over five decades. Bettye LaVette has fashioned herself into quite the song interpreter. Always one to completely rip a song down to its bones and come back with an arrangement that makes it completely her own (YouTube her performance of The Who’s “Love, Reign o’er Me” at the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors if you need more proof), LaVette’s recent string of records in what she calls her fifth career find her cherry-picking quite the eclectic array of canons. Along with the usual suspects like Lennon/McCartney, Dylan and Jagger/Richards, she’s also put her stamp on songs by Lucinda Williams, Fiona Apple, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Elton John and John Hiatt. Here is a trio of songs that she’s covered that really resonate for her and why.
Read more at the Long Island Weekly.