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Friday, October 5, 2012

Bettye LaVette - Thankful N' Thoughtful (USA 2012)

Uncle Roddus Album Of The Day Part 3


1. Everything Is Broken (3:44)
2. I'm Not the One (3:34)
3. Dirty Old Town (3:55)
4. The More I Search (The More I Die) (4:21)
5. I'm Tired (3:18)
6. Crazy (5:47)
7. Yesterday Is Here (3:38)
8. Thankful N' Thoughtful (4:21)
9. Fair Enough (3:15)
10.Time Will Do the Talking (4:05)
11.Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (3:20)
12.Dirty Old Town (Slow Version) (7:01)

This new album by Bettye LaVette was briefly reviewed in my latest Uncut Magazine and was highly rated with a 9/10, so when I spotted it on a blog I had to give it a go to see what the fuss is about. These veteran artists doing albums of covers has become common nowadays with Johnny Cash's American Recordings series setting a very high benchmark. Someone with the talent of Bettye can put out some outstanding music with the right songs chosen and the right Musos to back them up and this set had managed to get those ingredients right. Bettye has been around the business for nigh on 50 years, but I was not familiar with any of her work, although I knew of her and had a fair idea of what area of popular music she inhabited. Hearing her sing in her soulful croon, she sounds so familiar to me, although a search of my itunes library only turns up two songs. After listening to this set several times I must say that Bettye is one of the all time great female soul singers and still in devastating singing form. This album kicks of with an absolutely brilliant cover of Bob Dylans "Everything Is Broken" and rates as one of the best Dylan Covers I have heard along with Wanda Jackson's take on "Thunder On The Mountain" and Steve Earls excellent version of "One More Cup Of Coffee". The rest of this album fails to quite live up to that stratospheric high but it is an exceptional rendering of well chosen and played tracks and keeps me interested and impressed throughout. Rating 4/5

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