Bettye LaVette performs with Etienne Stadwijk at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, on March 15.
“What we’re going to be doing this evening is … anything I want to do,” said Bettye LaVette, March 15 at The Vogel at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank.
LaVette, the Detroit native and West Orange resident who hit a major life milestone in January — “This year, Dolly Parton and I turned 80 years old,” she said before performing Parton’s “Little Sparrow” — performed stripped-down versions of songs from throughout her 60-plus-year career with just keyboardist Etienne Stadwijk, and was rarely less than mesmerizing. She sang in a slow, conversational way, with a focus and a deliberateness that helped you fully grasp the meaning of every word.
KEVIN KILEY
Bettye LaVette with keyboardist Etienne Stadwijk.
The show was advertised as “The Songs, The Stories, The Great Lady of Soul,” and LaVette — who has earned seven Grammy nominations since resurrecting her career as a recording artist in 2003 — talked about who wrote the songs, and their personal meaning for her, before many of them. After discussing Sharon Robinson, for instance, before performing Robinson’s “One More Song,” she added: “I tell you these things about these writers because that is what this duo thing is supposed to be about. The way that I choose tunes … I choose all my own tunes for every recording session since the first one in 1962. But they’re things that I would say, or things that are just so absolutely substantial they need to be said by someone.”
A few moments later, she said: “Of course I want you to listen to me, but I want you to listen to these lyrics, because the reason I chose these tunes is because the lyrics are just so strong and powerful. … When I’m looking for songs to record, I concentrate mainly on the lyric, and I don’t care how big the tune is, or how great it is, if it doesn’t make sense to me, or if I can’t imagine me saying it to you, in conversation — or in distress, whichever one it may be — I don’t do it.”
Because she needs the lyrics to make sense to her, she often makes changes in them. These changes tend to be minor, but help her fall into a comfortable, natural-sounding cadence, and project the sense that she is singing in her own voice. For instance, when performing Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” at The Vogel, she changed the lines
The night has fallen, I’m lyin’ awake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of Philadelphia?
to:
I tell you the night has fallen, and I’m still laying here awake
I can feel myself slowly slipping away
So receive me, my brother, with your faithless kiss
Or else we’re gonna leave each other all alone, right here, like this
On the streets of Philadelphia
BETTYE LaVETTE
She opened both of her sets with a dire Bob Dylan song (“Things Have Changed,” “Everything Is Broken”) and also performed his timeless breakup song, “It Ain’t Me Babe.” Her classic-rock song choices ranged The Moody Blues’ orchestral-rock landmark “Nights in White Satin” — performed in a slow, aching way — to relatively obscure songs such as Elton John’s “Talking Old Soldiers” and Traffic’s “No Time to Live.”
She called Ray Charles her favorite song stylist before performing his 1984 single “They Call It Love,” and shared a story about meeting Tom Waits before singing his “Yesterday Is Here.”
While LaVette is often described as an R&B singer, let it be noted that the aforementioned “Little Sparrow” was followed by a deeply heartfelt version of another country classic, the George Jones hit “Choices.”
She closed her first set with her rowdy first single, “My Man — He’s a Lovin’ Man,” and encored with an a cappella version of Sinéad O’Connor’s prayer-like “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.”
Here is the show’s setlist, with songwriters — and, in some cases, the artists who have famously recorded the songs — included.
“Things Have Changed,” Bob Dylan
“Little Sparrow,” Dolly Parton
“Choices,” Mike Curtis & Billy Yates (recorded by George Jones)
“It Ain’t Me Babe,” Bob Dylan
“One More Song,” Sharon Robinson
“No Time to Live,” Jim Capaldi & Steve Winwood (recorded by Traffic)
“In the Meantime,” Randall Bramblett
“Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” Mickey Newbury (recorded by The First Edition)
“Streets of Philadelphia,” Bruce Springsteen
“My Man — He’s a Lovin’ Man,” James Bennett & Johnnie Mae Matthews
(Intermission)
“Everything Is Broken,” Bob Dylan
“They Call It Love,” William T. Davidson (recorded by Ray Charles)
“Just Say So,” Cathy Majeski & John Scott Sherrill
“The Forecast (Calls for Pain),” David Plenn & Dennis Walker (recorded by Robert Cray)
“Before I Even Knew Your Name (I Needed You),” Stephen Hartley Dorff & Marty Panzer
“Talking Old Soldiers,” Elton John & Bernie Taupin
“Yesterday Is Here,” Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
“Nights in White Satin,” Justin Hayward (recorded by The Moody Blues)
“Bless Us All,” Mickey Newbury
“A Woman Like Me,” Dennis Walker, Greg Brown, Linda Thomas
Encore:
“I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” Sinéad O’Connor
A duo show by Bettye LaVette and Etienne Stadwijk at Jimmy’s Jazz and Blues Club in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, March 20 at 7:30 p.m., will be livestreamed. Click HERE for information.
LaVette and Stadwijk will also perform at City Winery in Manhattan, March 24 at 7:30 p.m.; visit citywinery.com.
For more about LaVette, visit bettyelavette.com.
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