Bettye LaVette is a veteran of the soul music scene, discovered at age 16 by Motor City music figure Johnnie Mae Matthews. For decades, LaVette struggled to breakthrough, until the 2000 release of a shelved LP recorded in the 1970’s heralded her arrival as the Great Lady of Soul.

LaVette was born in Muskegon, Michigan in 1946, and grew up in Detroit surrounded by friends who would become stars at Motown and Atlantic. Her first single, “My Man – He’s a Loving Man” was a Top 10 R&B hit. For three decades after that, LaVette cut singles for a range of labels (Big Wheel, Silver Fox, Atco, Epic, West End, Motown, and Bar/None), but her first LP, Child of the Seventies, was shelved by Atlantic in 1972.

LaVette finally released her first record, Tell Me a Lie, in 1982 on Motown. Although the album did not prove to be a chart-breaker, LaVette continued to sing and perform throughout the 1990’s.

In 2000, French soul collector Gilles Petard learned of her shelved Atlantic recording and licensed it for release under the new title Souvenirs. The album brought renewed interest in LaVette, sending her back into the recording studio. In 2003, LaVette released A Woman Like Me on the Blues Express label, and won a prestigious WC Handy Award for “Comeback Blues Album of the Year.”

Anti Records signed her on shortly afterwards, and LaVette released I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, a collection of covers by women artists, including Sinead O’Conner, Aimee Mann, and Fiona Apple. LaVette’s 2007 release, The Scene of the Crime, recorded for Anti with Southern rock band Drive by Truckers, was met with critical acclaim.