Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is amazing stuff, folks, September 27, 2005
I'd never heard of this performer until a report on "CBS News Sunday Morning" by Bill Flannagan of VH1 ("Up Next and Recaps" on September 25) included a brief description about this meaty slice of music. I'm not normally grateful to a newscast, but in this case I certainly am - I might have missed out on this incredible singer.
Comparisons to Ann Peebles or Tina Turner come to mind, but that misses the mark since there's a smouldering presence in Bettye's voice that isn't matched elsewhere. The late Janis Joplin would have had this voice in her head as an ambitious ideal to approach, but could never hope to attain.
The musicians in the back give Bettye some wonderful support, enabling her to simply deliver without having to carry lesser talent along with her. The recording quality is supurb, and whatever ambience the studio brought to the table only helps to create the magic surrounding these knockout performances.
If you thought that there was no genuine soulful entertainers left anymore, give this a listen before you walk away. If you miss this, you've missed the world.
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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible!, September 27, 2005
This is no comeback album. Bettye LaVette is right where she's always been, doing what she's always done; reaching into a song, finding its heart and staking a claim to it as her own. This is our chance for the world to catch up with her, and it couldn't be a finer opportunity.
"I've Got My Own Hell To Raise" is ten songs from ten female writers who, at first blush, might be surprised they've written soul songs. In each case, opening with the cappella Sinead O'Connor's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got" and closing with Fiona Apple's "Sleep To Dream," LaVette not only taps the emotional essence of each song, she's able to transmit that emotion with no wasted effort or dramatic puffery.
Even better, the brilliance of her performance is matched by the vitality of the attitude portrayed in each song. There's not a whimper to be heard from beginning to end. There's vulnerability, but no weakness. The show of strength is exhilarating.
For those current day melisma-addicted "neo-soul" singers who think it's necessary to stretch every word over a dozen notes and add senseless swoops and trills as a sign of sincerity, "I've Got My Own Hell To Raise" will be a master class on what it means to sing with real soul. The great delight is that we get to sit in on the lesson any time we like.
LaVette sings on the razor's edge of emotion. Every note, every tone, every pregnant pause has a meaning. It is naked, it is pure, it is powerful. LaVette knows what she wants to say, and even better, she has all the tools to tell us. This is a real voice. When she wants to hammer, she hits hard. When she needs to cut deep, she's a laser.
The production of the CD provides the perfect setting for her performance. It's spare, and stripped down, making sure LaVette is always the centerpiece. Those who think horns are necessary for soul music might be disappointed, but they shouldn't be, because with this CD, horns would just get in the way. This is soul music, distilled to its essence, the way it should sound all the time.
The CD is a flat out gem. You need this CD.
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44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Show Stopping., September 27, 2005
Bettye LaVette can't sing. Lavette can "sang." Time and sour taste has weathered her voice and bent a weird saddened state to her phrasing but it works here. She sounds like the last great gospel singer. She has the kind of voice that Aretha should have if she fell on hard times.
The entire production is showstopping but the care she gives to Dolly Parton's work is masterful. It's an utter shame that this work might be ignored when awards are handed out but that's not the point. The point is that her work has gravity to it in a time when music is all about prodcution above everything else.
Only Mavis Staples and the still great Etta James can come close to evoking such an a lived in performance to another's material.
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