[MUSIC - Luscious Jackson: Citysong]

Alison: 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 Bettye LaVette. Bettye received a nod for Best Contemporary Blues Album, her seventh nomination in her decades-long career. The album is simply titled LaVette. Pitchfork called the Detroit-raised songstress one of America's "finest song interpreters," and a review in The Guardian said of the album, "Much of the magic of LaVette lies in the 77-year-old soul survivor's ability to invest classic R&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 bluesy LP, LaVette puts her spin on songs like Alright 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 Lavette's version of that song.

[MUSIC - Bettye LaVette: Don't Get Me Started]

Don't even get me started

Now because you know I can't stop

Just like a broken record

Running round and round the clock

All these things you're saying

Charlie Nelson with my care

I got a crowd of strangers

Underneath my bed

You tell me you can read my calls--

Alison: Joining us now is Bettye LaVette for a Grammy listening party. Bettye, welcome.

Bettye: Hi, baby. How are you? Happy New Year.

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

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

Alison: I'm working on it. Why not?

Bettye: Your smile is just so happy.

Alison: What do I got to complain about?

Bettye: There you go.

Alison: When did you really realize you were going to pursue a career in music?

Bettye: Did you notice when I started?

Alison: Tell us.

Bettye: 62 years ago, I guess I realized that I was going to pursue a career in music about 15 years later. I didn't have any career aspirations. I knew no one else in show business. I'd never seen a show, a live show. I grew into what I did. You can be taught to do a lot of things, but you can't be taught to sing. Either you can sing or not. Only 2% of the people and birds in the world can sing. 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 till I was about maybe 20 or 25.

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

Bettye: I'm from Detroit. I was born in Western Michigan, Muskegon, Michigan in 1946. If you wanted a drink after dinner 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 would speak clearly, but at 18 months old, I knew songs by BB King and Esther Phillips. I had a teenager sister who loved contemporary people, and at that time, that was BB King, Esther Phillips. My father loved gospel and blues, so I knew gospel and blues songs.

My mother loved popular music and country western, and I knew all of those songs. I got a pretty rounded thing, but I wasn't looking at it as a career. 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 Michigan 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 Cooke, the first week he was with The Soul Stirrers.

My sister was madly in love with him. They just all are like old people to me. I was only 18 months old, but my sister fell madly in love with Sam Cooke. That was what my childhood was like.

Alison: When you think back, when was the big break? What was the gig, the relationship, the business moment that really opened the door for you to become a professional?

Bettye: Alison, I think the reason I was permitted to write a book is because the questions you would ask me are-- I was 16 years old. The 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. Then something else big happened almost 10 years later. Throughout my career, it's been big things and then nothing. 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 to perform at Barack Obama's inaugural party. More people saw me then than had ever seen me before, but 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. I don't even know what to tell you, Alison, at this point.

Alison: Well, let's listen to some music from the Grammy-nominated album, LaVette. Let's listen to In the Meantime, which features John Mayer on guitar. Let's hit it.

[MUSIC - Bettye LaVette: In the Meantime]

There's a big old hole in this world of mine

And I'm doing my best to fill it

But I just can't seem to drink enough of that champagne wine

To carry me through in the meantime

I'm dreaming dreams of my used-to-be

Telling everybody I'll be just fine

One day I know it's all coming back to me

Welcome to my life in the meantime

There's a face in the mirror

That I'd swear was mine

But lately, I hardly know it

Love, hope, and faith used to light up these eyes of mine--

Alison: That's In the Meantime from Bettye Lavette's Grammy-nominated album, LaVette. My guest is Bettye LaVette. We got a text for you, Bettye. Someone has texted in, "Please tell Ms. LaVette her performance on the Kennedy Center Honors seeing The Who's Love, Reign o'er Me is a video I returned to on YouTube several times a year. It's pure perfection. Love her madly."

Bettye: Text him back and tell him I love him, too.

Alison: Okay. Well, they're listening. There you go. You got love from Bettye LaVette today. Could the day get better? In the liner notes in this album, you called Randall Bramblett the best songwriter you've heard in the past 30 years. How were you first introduced to his music?

Bettye: We were performing together and I heard him singing. He was all by himself playing guitar. 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.'' 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 photos of me of things for me of things I like or hope to record at some point of all kinds of songs.

Randall was getting bigger and bigger. When I had the opportunity to do this thing with Jay-Vee and with Steve Jordan, I said, "I have this parcel of songs I want to do.'' When he listened to them, he liked them all as well. 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. I meant for it to be that drastically different one song from the other. I know some really, really good writers, but they tend to write about a thing. I have recorded many of those things. Randall writes about just the darkest things. How do you write about being lazy?

[laughter]

Alison: Actually, you know what? That's the song we have, which is called, what is it? It's Lazy (And I Know It). Can we take a listen to that?

Bettye: What you're going to do?

Alison: What you're going to do? Here's Bettye Lavette with Lazy (And I Know It).

[MUSIC - Bettye LaVette: Lazy (And I Know It]

One time I had a day job, it didn't thrill me

They put me on this desk job, child, that's like they kill me

I was supposed to do something

I still can't think what it was

Try to understand I gotta beat myself

Moving up a ladder, that's for somebody else

Some folks think I'm lazy

But am working hard all the time in my mind

Lazy and I know it, what you gonna do

Stop wasting all your energy tryna make me be like you

Tell the truth now y'all, don't you wanna just dream sometimes

Alison: That's the voice of Bettye LaVette from her Grammy-nominated album, LaVette. It's up for Best Contemporary Blues Album. We'll hear more tracks from the album and talk more with Bettye after a very quick break. This is All of It.

[MUSIC - Luscious Jackson: Citysong]

Alison: This is All of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Bettye LaVette. She is nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album for her LP, LaVette. Bettye, you worked with producer Steve Jordan, someone you've worked with before. What do you like about him as a producer?

Bettye: 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. He speaks music for me because I describe all of mine in animation. It's like I wanted to go like jigga, jigga, jigga or whatever. He says, "She means she wants you to play." He thinks along the same lines that I do. We've had many of the same experiences in life. He immediately recognized me and who I was and just knows instinctively what I want.

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 pretty much want you to know what I want.

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

Bettye: Oh, you were talking about him earlier and listed things that Steven has done. He's the new drummer for The Rolling Stones.

Alison: I had heard that. That's for real?

Bettye: You didn't mention that.

Alison: I'm glad you said it because the internet. I saw it on the internet, but you never know with the internet. I'm glad to know that it's for real.

Bettye: Absolutely, yes.

Alison: Did you record the album in New York? Is that right?

Bettye: Yes.

Alison: 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, this experience?

Bettye: I had an extremely unique experience. These musicians are some of the biggest musicians in the world. They came in with Steven and from all over the world. The day that everybody's booked, ready to go in and lay the tracks down, I contracted COVID.

Alison: Oh, no.

Bettye: 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. I'm so glad that, Alison, it's the musicians on the recording. Many of them have been on the other two that Steven and I did. The other ones are from Detroit. 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. He would come and sit in with my music director at the time, Woody Robinson, in Detroit, and who else?

Jon Batiste, his father was in my band when I lived in New Orleans. 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 involvement with me some way. 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. We did the track that way. Then by that time I was well, and I went into the studio and did my voice.

Alison: First of all, I hope you're feeling all right, yes?

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

Alison: Just checking. Just want to make sure.

Bettye: I'm holding on.

Alison: Protect Bettye at all costs. Let's listen to that track featuring Ray Parker Jr. and Jon Batiste. This is Mess About It.

[MUSIC - Bettye LaVette: Mess About It]

I came back from New York City

Everything had changed

There was something different about the way everything looked

I have been seeing little pictures running through my brain

When I used to run around on a Northern

Oh, I (ahh)

I (ahh)

I (ahh)

I (ahh)

I'm a mess about it I'm a mess about it

When you're burning daylight

And you're almost home

Alison: That's Mess About It from the album LaVette. My guest is Bettye LaVette. 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 of the album?

Bettye: I just thought it was so different. Another thing about these songs, they sound as if they were written for me. 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 would say and that's the unique thing about it. Plan B is-- I meant, I liked the slickness of it and I liked the fact that it's very true. I don't know how to do anything else. [chuckles] I ain't got no plan B.

Alison: 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--

Bettye: Oh, that's fun.

Alison: Yes, let's hear the first one.

[MUSIC - Randall Bramblett: Plan B]

Hello. Come in.

Worn out mini tire beat up van

Faded phone number on the back of my hand

Looking for a girl that used to live up here

I can still see her even though she disappeared

Hangin by a string mumblin a prayer

My mojo busted and I don’t have a spare

Might be a fool but at least I’m free

That’s why they love me

I got no plan B

Alison: All right, let’s hear Bettye's version. Hit it.

[MUSIC - Bettye LaVette: Plan B]

Worn out, frazzled, taking too long

Same old words and the same old song

I'm looking for a friend who used to live up here

I can still hear a voice even though she disappeared

Hanging by a string mumbling a prayer

My mojo's busted and I ain't got a spare

I might be crazy but at least I'm free

But I worry about it

I ain't got no plan B

Alison: Yours is a little slinkier, little vibe going on.

Bettye: Well, I'm older than him.

[laughter]

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

Bettye: I'm sorry.

Alison: When you're deciding to interpret a song, what goes into your decisions to may be slow the tempo down or to treat the vocal a certain way.

Bettye: Oh, the song. The lyrics first. I'm often disappointed because actually, the melody verse or the movement of the tune. Sometimes I will fall in love with that and then the lyrics don't stand up to that. There have been songs that I wanted to do that I just decide I'll hum them around the house because the lyrics doesn'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. I can't sing, what do we call them? [unintelligible 00:23:55] 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. The lyrics have to be something I want to say. The only words I don't use is "I'll kill myself", "I'll die" or "boy". I've never used those words in a song. You know, if you leave me, I don't know what I'm going to do but I ain't going to die. [laughs]

Alison: For real. 100% for real.

Bettye: [laughs] I knew you had that look on your face. I know mine when I see them.

Alison: Right here, Bettye, right here. [laughs] It has been such a pleasure to have you. Bettye LaVette is nominated for a Grammy for her album LaVette for Best Contemporary Blues Album. This was a treat, Bettye, speaking with you. Thank you so much.

Bettye: Oh, Alison, thank you so much for talking with me. Where are you?

Alison: I'm in SoHo, New York.

Bettye: Okay.

Alison: So come by next time. Next time you're in the city, just swing by. Any time, open invitation.

Bettye: 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.

[laughter]

Bettye: But it's been great talking with you, baby.

Alison: Bettye, thanks so much. Let's go out on, It's Alright.

[MUSIC - Bettye LaVette: It's Alright]

Black streams flows the heavens

A slice of the beautiful blue

I'll follow this highway

But I know it won't lead me to you

Alison: Coming up on tomorrow's show, director, Ava DuVernay; and actor, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor join me to discuss their new movie, Origin. That is All Of It for today, I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you, I appreciate listening, and I appreciate Bettye LaVette. Who doesn't?

 

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