Bettye LaVette: LaVette! (Grammy Listening Party)

Summary

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All Of It (WNYC) – Grammy Listening Party with Bettye LaVette

Air Date: January 18, 2024
Host: Alison Stewart
Guest: Bettye LaVette

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Episode Overview

This episode celebrates Bettye LaVette’s seventh (or possibly eighth) Grammy nomination, focusing on her album LaVette, nominated for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Host Alison Stewart sits down with the iconic soul/blues singer for a vibrant conversation about her career, creative process, and the stories behind the making of her new record. The show also features several tracks from the album and explores LaVette’s approach to song interpretation, collaboration, and resilience in the music industry.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Bettye LaVette’s Early Years and Musical Upbringing

• Unlikely Origins: LaVette reflects on her beginnings, having grown up in Muskegon, Michigan, in a household where her family sold corn liquor and hosted impromptu gatherings with a jukebox at home ([05:10]).
• Influences: She was exposed to a wide range of music—her father loved gospel and blues, her mother enjoyed popular and country-western, and her sister followed the contemporary stars of the time (B.B. King, Esther Phillips) ([05:13]).
• On Her Childhood:

  “At 18 months old, I knew songs by B.B. King and Esther Phillips.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([05:26])

2. The Unconventional Path to a Musical Career

• LaVette admits she didn’t have clear ambitions to be a singer early on, instead using her musical talent to enjoy teenage pursuits, and only became serious about a career around the ages of 20-25 ([04:00]).

• “You can be taught to do a lot of things, but you can’t be taught to sing... only 2% of the people and birds in the world can sing.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([04:20])

• Her career has spanned decades, marked by bursts of recognition and success, but also years of obscurity. Her major “breaks” include performing at the Kennedy Center Honors and Barack Obama’s inaugural party, which brought her to larger audiences ([07:25]).

• "I keep telling my audience I'm becoming the Susan Lucci of rhythm and blues.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([08:28])

3. Collaboration & Musical Choices on LaVette

• On Songwriter Randall Bramblett:
  LaVette considers him "the best songwriter [she’s] heard in the past 30 years," attracted by the variety and depth in his material ([11:20]).
• Song Selection Process:
  LaVette and her husband curated a “folder” of Bramblett’s songs over the course of 10–12 years, eventually making them the core of the album ([11:34]).

• “I like writers who write about Santa Claus and murderers. … Randall writes about just the darndest things. How do you write about being lazy?”
  — Bettye LaVette ([12:46])

4. A Unique Recording Experience

• COVID-19 Challenges: LaVette contracted COVID at the start of recording sessions. Instead of delaying, they laid down tracks remotely, with all musicians and LaVette “together” via screens ([17:31]).

• “I did it just the way you and I are talking. … All of these people had a personal involvement with me some kind of way.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([18:01])

• Band Cohesion: Many musicians on LaVette have long personal or professional ties with her—e.g., Ray Parker Jr., John Batiste.

5. Approach to Song Interpretation

• LaVette is adamant that lyrics are paramount in her interpretation: if the lyrics aren’t compelling or true to her, she won’t sing the song ([24:19]).
• She avoids “10 and two songs” (two short verses and ten choruses), and refuses lyrics that contradict her philosophy or age ([24:50]).

• “I can’t sing something that’s stupid. It can be funny, but it can’t be stupid.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([25:15])

• “The only words I don’t use is I’ll kill myself, I’ll die, or boy... I don’t know what I’m gonna do. But I ain’t gonna die.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([25:30])

6. Working with Producer Steve Jordan

• Communication & Chemistry: Jordan "speaks music for me" and understands her direction even when she describes it in unconventional terms (“I want it to go like, jigga, jigga, jigga…”).
• Shared Experience: A lifetime of similar musical adventures leads Jordan to intuitively grasp LaVette’s needs, streamlining the creative process ([15:49], [16:10]).

7. Making Songs Her Own

• To illustrate her interpretive distinctiveness, the show plays both Randall Bramblett’s and LaVette’s versions of “Plan B,” revealing her signature transformation in pacing, vibe, and emotion ([22:12]–[24:08]).

• “Well, I’m older than him.”
  — Bettye LaVette, on why her version feels different ([24:08])

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Notable Quotes

• On Stage Milestones:

  “First time I went on stage was the first time I went on stage, first time I’d ever seen a live show. … It has been step by step.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([07:31])

• On Longevity:

  “This is my seventh Grammy nomination, maybe eighth. … I’m becoming the Susan Lucci of rhythm and blues.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([08:28])

• On Song Choice (“Plan B”):

  “I like the slickness of it, and I like the fact that it’s very true. I don’t know how to do anything else. I ain’t got no Plan B.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([21:48])

• On Life and Lyrics:

  “If you leave me, I don’t know what I’m gonna do, but I ain’t gonna die.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([25:35])

• Heartwarming Listener Moment:
  A listener texts in to praise LaVette’s Kennedy Center performance:

  “Tell Ms. LaVette her performance on the Kennedy Center Honors sing the Who’s ‘Love, Reign o'er Me’ is a video I return to on YouTube several times a year. It’s pure perfection. Love her madly.”
  — Listener ([10:34])

  LaVette’s reply:

  “Oh, text him back and tell him I love him too.”
  — Bettye LaVette ([10:58])

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Highlighted Musical Segments (Timestamps)

• Don’t Get Me Started (excerpt)
  [02:42]–[03:18]

• In the Meantime (feat. John Mayer)
  [09:07]–[10:16]

• Lazy and I Know It
  [13:18]–[14:50]

• Mess About It (feat. Ray Parker Jr., John Batiste)
  [19:40]–[21:21]

• Plan B (Randall Bramblett original and LaVette version)
  [22:20]–[24:04]

• It’s All Right (show outro)
  [27:01]–[28:00]

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Memorable Moments

• Virtual Recording Session During COVID:
  The entire recording band worked over remote video, with LaVette conducting and singing while musicians from around the world played along (and could see her face on their iPads).
• Artist Philosophy:
  LaVette’s refusal to sing lyrics about dying for love, or that lack substance, gives her performances a lived-in authenticity and wry grit.
• Laughter and Camaraderie:
  The episode is filled with warm, teasing banter between Stewart and LaVette, with mutual admiration evident throughout—LaVette’s humor and honesty shine.

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Episode Conclusion

Alison Stewart wraps up by inviting Bettye LaVette to visit the studio in person and closes with the track “It’s All Right” ([27:01]). The deep dive into LaVette—the album and the artist—offers listeners insight into a singular voice shaped by decades in American music, resilience, and an ever-honest approach to the craft.

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Transcript

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[Betty Lavette]

I'm going to put you on nephew.

[Narrator/Singer]

All right unc, welcome to McDonald's.

[Betty Lavette]

Can I take your order? Ms. Been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps.

[Narrator/Singer]

What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.

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[Narrator/Singer]

Listener supported WNYC studios.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We're fewer than three weeks away from the Grammys. Over the course of the next few weeks, we're going to spend some time with nominees. Today my guest is Betty Levette. Betty received a nod for best Contemporary Blues album, her seventh nomination in her decades long career. The album is simply titled Lovette. Pitchfork called the Detroit Ray songstress one of America's quote finest song interpreters and a review in the Guardian said of the album, much of the magic of Lovette lies in the 77 year old soul survivor's ability to invest classic R and B tropes with the world weary experience and infallible wisdom of age. So they hit different Produced by her frequent collaborator Steve Jordan, the extraordinary drummer has played with folks like the Stones, Alicia Keys and Springsteen. The album covers songs written and or co written by Georgian musician Randall Bramblett. In the soulful blues ELP Lovett puts her spin on songs like all right from Bramblett's 2006 album Rich Someday and Don't Get Me started from his 2020 album Pine Needle Fire. Let's take a listen to Lovett's version of that song.

[Narrator/Singer]

Don't even get me started long cause you know I can't stop Just like a broken record running round and round the clock. All these things you say child ain't messing with my head. I got a crown of stranger underneath my bed. You tell me you can read my call.

[Interviewer]

Joining us now is Betty Lovett for a Grammy listening party. Betty, welcome.

[Betty Lavette]

Hi baby, how Are you Happy New Year?

[Interviewer]

Same to you. Same to you. Thank you for making time today.

[Betty Lavette]

You look like the happiest person I've seen this year.

[Interviewer]

I'm working on it, you know, why not?

[Betty Lavette]

Your smile is just so happy.

[Interviewer]

What do I got to complain about? When did you really realize you were going to pursue a career in music?

[Betty Lavette]

Did you notice when I started.

[Interviewer]

Tell us.

[Betty Lavette]

62 years ago. I guess I realized I was going to pursue a career in music about 15 years later. But I mean, I didn't have any career aspirations. I never. I knew no one else in show business. I never seen a show, a live show. So it was. I grew into what I did. You, you can be taught to do a lot of things, but you can't be taught to sing either. You can sing or not. And only 2% of the people and birds in the world can sing. And since I could sing, I used singing to pursue all my other teenage interests. Being a groupie, all kinds of stuff. But I wasn't serious about it being a career for till I was about maybe 20 or 25.

[Interviewer]

What kind of music did your folks play around the house when you were a kid?

[Betty Lavette]

Well, my. My parents. I was born in western Michigan. I'm from Detroit. I was born in western Michigan, Muskegon, Michigan, in 1946. So if you wanted a drink after dinner, at that point, after work, at that point, you had to come to my house. My family sold corn liquor. We had a jukebox in the living room. And I was probably the only 18 month old, first of all, who could speak Clearly. But at 18 months old, I knew songs by B.B. king and Esther Phillips. I had a teenager sister who loved the contemporary people. And at that time, that was B.B. king, Esther Phillips. My father loved gospel and blues, so I knew gospel and blues songs. My mother loved popular music in country western and I knew all of those songs. So desert. I got a pretty rounded thing. But I still, I wasn't looking at it as a career and not knowing while at that point, as I said, there was no place you could go if you were black. All of the gospel singers who came to Muskegon to perform at churches and whatever came to our house when the gospel singing was over to drink and eat chicken sandwiches and barbecue sandwiches that my mother made. So I got a chance to see the Blind Boys of Mississippi and the Swan Silvertones and Sam Cook. The first week he was with the Solsters and my sister was madly in love with him. They just all look like old people to me. I was only 18 months old, but my sister fell madly in love with Sam Cooke. And so that was what my childhood was like.

[Interviewer]

When you think back, what was the big break? What was the gig, the relationship, the business moment that really opened the door for you to become a professor?

[Betty Lavette]

It's Alison. I think the reason I was permitted to write a book is because it isn't your. The questions you would ask me are, I was 16 years old. First time I went on stage was the first time I went on stage, first time I'd ever seen a live show. I had a record in the charts 10 years before. That was big. So then something else big happened almost 10 years later. And throughout my career, it's been big things and then nothing but. The biggest and most important thing to me that helped me gather a few more people. In my 25th or 30th year, I was able to do the Kennedy Center Honors and to perform at Barack Obama's inaugural party. And more people saw me then than had ever seen me before. But it has been a step. It has been step by step. This is my seventh Grammy nomination, maybe eighth. I don't know. I keep telling my audience I'm becoming the Susan Lucci of rhythm and blues. And I, while I'm, I'm. I don't even know what to tell you.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, let's listen to some music from the Grammy nominated album the Vet. Let's listen to in the Meantime, which features John Mayer on guitar. Let's hit it.

[Narrator/Singer]

There's a great big old ho.

[Betty Lavette]

In.

[Narrator/Singer]

This world of mine and I'm doing my best to feel it.

[Betty Lavette]

And I.

[Narrator/Singer]

Just can't seem to drink enough of that champagne wine to carry me through in the meantime time I'm dreaming dreams of my used to be Telling everybody I'll be just fine one day I.

[Betty Lavette]

Know.

[Narrator/Singer]

It'S all coming back to me welcome to my life in the meantime There's a face in the mirror.

[Betty Lavette]

That.

[Narrator/Singer]

I swear was mine but lately I hardly know it Love, hope and faith Used to light up these eyes of.

[Interviewer]

Mine that's in the Meantime from Betty Lavette's Grammy nominated album, Lavette. My guest is Betty Levette. We got a text for you, Betty. Someone has texted in. Please tell Ms. Levette her performance on the Kennedy Center Honors sing the who's Love, Rain or Me is a video I return to on YouTube several times a year. It's pure perfection. Love her madly.

[Betty Lavette]

Oh, text him back and tell him I love him too.

[Interviewer]

Okay, well, they're listening, so there you Go. You got love from Betty Levette Today could the day get better? In the liner notes in this album, you called Randall Bramlett the best songwriter you've heard in the past 30 years. How were you first introduced to his music?

[Betty Lavette]

We were performing together and I heard him singing. He was all by himself playing guitar, and I couldn't see him, but I heard him and I liked everything I heard. I asked him would he send me some of his stuff. I asked him, first of all, I said, do you let other people do it? He said, yes, if they will. So he sent me the song. And then my husband went into his catalog and found more songs. And I recorded two of them right away. That's been 10 or 12 years ago, but I kept the songs. We kept them. My husband keeps folders of me, of things for me, for. Of things I like or hope to record at some point of all kinds of songs. And the. Out the. The category with he. With Randall was getting bigger and bigger. So when I had the opportunity to do this thing with. With JV and with Steve Jordan, I said, I have this parcel of songs I want to do. And when he listened to them, he liked them all as well. But I think I like him so much because he doesn't write in just one idiom. I like writers who write about Santa Claus and murderers. And I meant for it to be that drastically different one song from the other. You know, I know some really, really good writers, but they tend to write about a thing. And I have recorded most of many of those things. But Randall writes about just the darndest things. How do you write about being lazy?

[Alison Stewart]

Actually, you know what? That's the song we have, which is called. What is It? It's Lazy and I Know it.

[Betty Lavette]

Yeah, let's.

[Alison Stewart]

Can we take a look? What you going to do? Here's Betty Levette with Lazy and to know it.

[Narrator/Singer]

One time I had a day job.

[Betty Lavette]

It didn't thrill me they put me.

[Narrator/Singer]

On this desk job child that like they killed me I was supposed to.

[Betty Lavette]

Do something.

[Narrator/Singer]

I still can't think what it was Try to understand me I gotta beat myself moving up a ladder that for somebody else Some folks think I'm lazy.

[Betty Lavette]

But I'm working hard.

[Narrator/Singer]

All the time in my mind Lazy and.

[Betty Lavette]

I know what you're gonna do Stop.

[Narrator/Singer]

Wasting all your energy Trying to make me feel like you Tell the truth now, y' all don't you wanna just treatment sometimes?

[Interviewer]

That's the voice of Betty Lavette from her Grammy nominated album, Lovette. It's up for best Contemporary Blues Album. We'll hear more tracks from the album and talk more with Betty after a very quick break. This is all of it.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Betty Lovett. She is nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album for her LP Lovette. Betty, you worked with producer Steve Jordan, someone you've worked with before. What do you like about him as a producer?

[Betty Lavette]

He knows usually it's if I can't do it myself, you can't figure out what I'm talking about. But he can figure out what I'm talking about. And he. He speaks music for me because I describe all of mine in animation. It's like I wanted to go like, jigga, jigga, jigga, jigga, jigga or whatever. And he says, she means she wants you to play. But he. He thinks along the same lines that I do. We've had many of the same experiences in life, and he immediately recognized me and who I was and just knows instinctively what I want. And that is just especially at this point in my career and in my life. I am not for a bunch of, as my mother used to say, rigmarole. I just, you know, I pretty much want you to know what I want.

[Alison Stewart]

No doubt. Was it recorded here in New York City, this album?

[Betty Lavette]

Oh, you know, you were talking about him earlier and list of things that Stephen has done. You know, he's the new drummer for the Rolling Stone.

[Alison Stewart]

I had heard that. That's for real.

[Betty Lavette]

You didn't mention that.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, well, you know, I'm glad you said it because the Internet, I saw it on the Internet, but you never know with the Internet. So I'm glad to know that it's for real.

[Betty Lavette]

Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

Did you record the album in New York, is that right?

[Betty Lavette]

Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

What was something that was if something that was unique about the sessions this time around? You've done this a lot. Was there something unique about it?

[Betty Lavette]

This experience had an extremely unique experience. These musicians are some of the biggest musicians in the world, and they came in with Stephen and I from all over the world. And the day that everybody's booked ready to go in and do lay the tracks down, I contracted Covid.

[Narrator/Singer]

Oh, no.

[Betty Lavette]

So the most unique thing about this was that I did it just the way you and I are talking. That is the way we laid the track down. But I'm so glad that Alison. It's the musicians on the recording. Many of them have been on the other two that Stephen and I did, and the Other ones are. I are from Detroit or. Ray Parker Jr. Played in my band when he was a teenager. I met James Carter when he was getting ready to graduate from high school, and he would come and sit in with my music director at the time, Rudy Robinson in Detroit and who else? John Batiste. His father was in my band when I lived in New Orleans. So there was. I don't believe that I could have done it as successfully as we did it with some other good musicians. All of these people had a personal involved with involvement with me some kind of way. So they all took out their iPads. They had my face on their table next to them. I could see them all on the screen, and they could see me. And we did the track that way. And then by that time, I was well, and I went into the studio and did my voice well.

[Alison Stewart]

First of all, I hope you're feeling all right.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Betty Lavette]

Oh, I'm good. This is a year ago.

[Alison Stewart]

Okay, just checking. Just want to make sure. Protect Betty at all costs. And let's. And let's listen to that track featuring.

[Interviewer]

Ray Parker Jr. And John Batiste.

[Alison Stewart]

This is mess about it.

[Narrator/Singer]

I came back from New York City. Everything had changed. There was something different about the way everything look. I've been seeing little pictures running through my brain When I used to run around on the Northeast. Oh, I mess about it when you're burning daylight and you're all.

[Alison Stewart]

That's mess about it. From the album Levette. My best. My guest is Betty Levette. Plan B was the first single released from this album. Why did you feel like that was the one? You wanted to be the first track to come out off the album?

[Betty Lavette]

I just thought it was so different. It. Another thing about these songs, they sound as if they were written for. For me, and they sound as if this is exactly. I mean, people who've known me for years have said it sounds just as if it's something you've. You would say, and that's a unique thing about it. But Plan B is. I meant I. I like the slickness of it, and I like the fact that it's very true. I don't know how to do anything else. I ain't got no Plan B.

[Alison Stewart]

Just so people can get a sense of how you take a song and make it your own. We're going to play a little bit of Randall Bramblett's version of Plan B and then play yours. Let's hear the.

[Narrator/Singer]

Oh, that's fun.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, let's hear the first one.

[Betty Lavette]

Hello.

[Narrator/Singer]

Come one out many times Beat a fan, faded phone number on the back of my hand Looking for a girl who used to live up here I can still see her even though she disappeared Hanging by string Mumbling a prayer A mojo busted and I don't have a spare Might be a fool but at least I I'm free that's why they love me I got no plan.

[Interviewer]

B All right, let's hear Betty's version. Hit it.

[Narrator/Singer]

Frazzled, it's taking too long Same old words, the same old song I'm looking for a friend who used to live.

[Betty Lavette]

Up here I can still hear a.

[Narrator/Singer]

Voice even though she's disappeared Entangling my strength Mumbling a prayer My mojo's busted and I ain't got a spare I might be crazy but this time free But I ain't worried about it I ain't got no plan B so yours.

[Alison Stewart]

Is a little slinkier, little vibe going on.

[Betty Lavette]

Well, I'm older than him.

[Interviewer]

How do you decide what changes to make in a tune?

[Betty Lavette]

I'm sorry?

[Interviewer]

When you're deciding to interpret a song, what goes into your decisions? To maybe slow the tempo down or.

[Betty Lavette]

To treat the vocals a certain way. The lyrics first. I'm often disappointed because actually the melody first or the movement of tunes, sometimes I will fall in love with that. And then the lyrics don't stand up to that. And there have been songs that I wanted to do that I just sat out, hum around the house because the lyrics just didn't stand up. And at this point here, again, all things are age considered. I can't sing something that's stupid. It can be funny, but it can't be stupid. And I can't sing. What we call them is 10 and two songs. I can't sing a song with two short verses and then you do the chorus 10 times. I can't do that. It has to have a story. It has to go somewhere. And the lyrics have to be something I want to say. I don't. The only words I don't use is I'll kill myself, I'll die. Or boy. Though I've never used those words in a song. You know, if you leave me I don't know what I'm gonna do But I ain't gonna die.

[Alison Stewart]

For real 100% for real.

[Betty Lavette]

I knew you had that look on your face I know mine when I see him Right here, Betty.

[Narrator/Singer]

Right here.

[Alison Stewart]

It has been such a pleasure to have you. Betty Lavette is nominated for a Grammy for her album Lovette for Best Contemporary Blues Album. This was a treat. Betty speaking with you.

[Betty Lavette]

Thank you so much, Allison. Thank you so much for talking with me. Where are you?

[Alison Stewart]

I'm in soho, New York.

[Betty Lavette]

Okay, so come by next time.

[Alison Stewart]

Next time you're in the city, just swing by anytime. Open invitation, please.

[Betty Lavette]

You please come and see me as well. Send Kevin a message and say me and the person who I will not die if they leave me is coming with me. But it's been great talking with you, baby.

[Alison Stewart]

Betty, thanks so much. Let's go out on it's all right.

[Narrator/Singer]

Black streams cross the heavens A slice.

[Betty Lavette]

Of the beautiful blue?

[Narrator/Singer]

I'll follow this highway But I know.

[Betty Lavette]

It won't lead me to you.

[Alison Stewart]

Coming up on tomorrow's show, director Ava DuVernay and actor Angenou Ellis Taylor join me to discuss the their new movie origin. And that is all of it for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you, I appreciate listening, and.

[Interviewer]

I appreciate Betty Levette, who doesn't go.

[Alison Stewart]

Out on the rest with Betty.

[Narrator/Singer]

When the sky was singing it's all right but till you've been crying.

[Betty Lavette]

It'S all right.

[Narrator/Singer]

Cause I'm crying too.

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