Bettye LaVette Brings Change to Central Park

Posted on Jul 27th 2009 3:30PM by DJ Lanphier
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"It's been a good year!" an exuberant Bettye LaVette told the crowd at Central Park's Summerstage as she launched into a scorching set of songs. Recording professionally since the age of 16, LaVette's eclectic musical range -- from blues to country to disco and rock -- kept her from finding a solid audience until 2005, when at the age of 59, she recorded the critically acclaimed 'I've Got My Own Hell to Raise,' a compilation of tunes by women songwriters including Aimee Mann, Joan Armatrading and Fiona Apple.

After a masterful take on the Who's 'Love Reign O'er Me' at the Kennedy Center Honors of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey in December followed by a show stopping duet version of Sam Cooke's classic 'A Change is Gonna Come' with Jon Bon Jovi at the Obama Inauguration Celebration, the fuse was lit and there was no looking back. In June, LaVette released a six-song EP, 'Change is Gonna Come Sessions,' and has been touring ever since.

Her Summerstage performance included a deeply soulful solo version of 'A Change is Gonna Come,' which moved the crowd to silence while she sang, save for the shouts of "Yes!" and "You know it!" in affirmation of the civil rights anthem. LaVette's raw, sublime a cappella of Sinead O'Connor's 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got' and bluesy cover of Willie Nelson's 'Somebody Pick Up My Pieces' redefined the songs in ways that reminded us that the blues is the root of American popular music. They conveyed a shared history of struggle, pain and joy as well as a yearning for things to change for the better.

Indeed, change may be hard to come by, but it does come eventually. Just ask Bettye LaVette.