Bettye LaVette and Drive-By Truckers: The Scene of the Crime (Anti) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007

 |   |  <1 min read

Bettye LaVette and Drive-By Truckers: I Still Want to be Your Baby
Bettye LaVette and Drive-By Truckers: The Scene of the Crime (Anti) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007

This is an unexpected pairing: soul-singer LaVette with alt-country rockers Drive-By Truckers recording in Muscle Shoals in Alabama.

A marriage made in heaven (or a somewhat hotter place) as it turns out: the band are edgy or supportive and nudge LaVette (who needs little prompting it must be said) through a collection of gritty songs which either jump out of the speakers or drag you into some intimate soul-baring lyrics.

LaVette, a Muscle Shoals veteran whose career has enjoyed a remarkable recent revival with her album I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, was returning home in a sense -- as was Trucker and co-producer Patterson Hood whose father was bassist in the studio and played on LaVette's 1972 sessions.

Here her remarkable voice is centrestage again and you feel that every lyric (by Willie Nelson, Don Henley, John Hiatt, Elton and Taupin, and others) is being interpreted a hard-won victory against the odds.

The autobiographical Before the Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette) is a killer.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Various Artists: See You on the Horizon (Sunreturn)

Various Artists: See You on the Horizon (Sunreturn)

There’s been a long and illustrious history of local compilations, from the Loxene Golden Disc collections in the late 60s and early 70s through seminal... > Read more

B2KDA: Rising (b2kda.com)

B2KDA: Rising (b2kda.com)

New Zealand's Batucada Sound Machine were rightly hailed -- that is, danced furiously to -- by audiences across the globe for their well oiled take on horn-driven upbeat party music with a South... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE SACRED TRIANGLE; BOWIE, IGGY AND LOU 1971-1973 (Sexy Intellectual/Triton DVD)

THE SACRED TRIANGLE; BOWIE, IGGY AND LOU 1971-1973 (Sexy Intellectual/Triton DVD)

It's hard to believe but in the same year as the Velvet Underground's debut album came out, David Bowie's new single was The Laughing Gnome, a gimmick song and another desperate step in trying to... > Read more

EVERY POSTER TELLS A STORY! 30 YEARS OF THE FRONTIER TOURING COMPANY edited by ELOISE GLANVILLE and  SARAH MORGAN

EVERY POSTER TELLS A STORY! 30 YEARS OF THE FRONTIER TOURING COMPANY edited by ELOISE GLANVILLE and SARAH MORGAN

Many people who have grown up in the rock era have band posters knocking about the house. Some of these are artistic (my framed one of Big Brother and the Holding Company with Moby Grape in San... > Read more