Although soul singer
Bettye LaVette made her first record at age sixteen, she achieved only intermittent fame until her 2005 album
I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise. In her autobiography
A Woman Like Me she writes openheartedly about the star status that appeared to be so close, but slipped through her fingers after some bad decisions. But that is all in the past: the singer-songwriter has known success for many years now. In 2009, she performed together with Jon Bon Jovi at the Barack Obama inaugural celebration - if that doesn’t get an artist the deserved attention, what will? LaVette has a voice drenched in gospel and blues that has retained the same power over the past fifty years, in which she has sung about her sorrows. Her latest album,
Worthy, was released earlier this year.
