Writelife

I would be a happy man. And I’d probably be a poet. I might not make millions, but I don’t think I’d care.

If an open wound had a voice it would be Bettye LaVette’s. This disc I’ve been listening to is all about the voice and the voice is all about how it feels to be alive and to love and to hurt. It’s soul music, R&B, but somehow that seems far too limiting a description.

How is it I didn’t come across this woman and this disc, I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, until now? The universe is mysterious, indeed. (Perhaps Ms. LaVette’s right when she refers to “damn buzzard luck.”)

All the songs on this particular disc are by female singer-songwriters (interesting that Bettye wasn’t too keen on the idea at first) and they are all reinterpreted and reinvented by a voice to die for. Most of them come from the folk and country fields, some from rock, but they really don’t sound anything like those genres here.

Also interesting is how she says she’s a better “editor” than a writer. “If you make a statement, I can make it a stronger statement. And, if you write a story, I can make it a stronger story. But I rarely think of a story I ever want to write myself.”

If I were a songwriter, I would kill to have a voice like this do one of my songs.

The arrangements on the album are generally pretty spare as Bettye’s voice is front and centre. And really, what a voice! It’s quite astonishing that she has mastered her voice to this degree and yet manages to sound heart-wrenchingly raw on every cut.

This isn’t just a great disc. It is unique. I’m pretty sure if you’ve heard music like this before, it hasn’t been for a very, very, very long time. (It’s hard to pick favourites, but the ones I keep playing are Joy, Down to Zero, The High Road and Just Say So.)

Put in alcohol terms: Bettye LaVette ain’t no fruit filled cocktail. She’s the hard stuff and it’s straight, no chaser.

And it is fabulous.

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