Last decade’s seen a new rising for Bettye LaVette, a genuine soul diva whose career started back in the ’60s but somehow stalled later on. 2012’s “Thankful N’ Thoughtful” was a fantastic work, and it’s follow-up, “Worthy,” scheduled for January 26th release, will surely live up to its title. It wouldn’t be the first time Bettye sings THE BEATLES or THE ROLLING STONES – she nailed, respectively, “The Word” and “Salt Of The Earth” on 2010’s “Interpretations” while doing “Wait” and “Complicated” this time around – or Bob Dylan whose “Unbeleivable” joins “Everything Is Broken” in LaVette’s repertoire, but now the chanteuse digs even deeper than TRAFFIC’s lore and unearthes SAVOY BROWN’s “When I Was A Young Boy” – turned, logically, into “When I Was A Young Girl.” Among new tracks also is a Mickey Newbury classic “Bless Us All,” AMAZING RHYTHM ACES’ ” Just Between You And Me And The Wall You’re A Fool” and a title cut co-written by Beth Nielsen Chapman and Mary Gauthier.
The album will be made available in a regular CD version as well as a CD/DVD package whose video part contains the diva’s 2014 concert in “The Jazz Café” in London’s Camden Town. So “Worthy” looks like this:
CD:
1. Unbelievable
2. When I Was A Young Girl
3. Bless Us All
4. Stop
5. Undamned
6. Complicated
7. Where A Life Goes
8. Just Between You And Me And The Wall You’re A Fool
9. Wait
10. Step Away
11. Worthy
DVD:
1. The Word
2. Everything Is Broken
3. Your Time To Cry
4. They Call It Love
5. Joy
6. Heart Of Gold
7. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
8. Either Way We Lose
9. Blackbird
10. My Man – He’s A Loving Man
11. Like A Rock
12. Heaven (The Closest I’ll Get)
13. Sleep To Dream
14. I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got