Bettye LaVette
Bettye LaVette is NOT performing at the 2025 Big Blues Bender.
This page is an archive from thier past perfomance(s).
Bettye LaVette has appeared on 1 previous Big Blues Bender lineup.
2021
Three-time Grammy nominee Bettye LaVette is no mere singer. She is not a songwriter, nor is she a "cover" artist. She is an interpreter of the highest order. Bettye is one of very few of her contemporaries who were recording during the birth of soul music in the 60s and is still creating vital recordings today. To quote the late, great George Jones: "Bettye is truly a 'singer's singer.'"
She was born Betty Jo Haskins on January 29,1946, in Muskegon, Michigan. Her family moved to Detroit when she was six years old. Her parents sold corn liquor, and her living room was oft-times visited by The Soul Stirrers, The Blind Boys of Mississippi, and many other traveling gospel groups of the day. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Bettye did not get her start in the church, but in that very same living room, where there was a jukebox, filled with the blues, country & western, and R&B records of the time. The "5" Royales, Dinah Washington, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Red Foley, ...these were her roots.
