Three time Grammy nominee Bettye LaVette was born Betty Jo Haskin on January 29,1946 in Muskegon, Michigan. Bettye is an interpreter of the highest order. Whether the song originated as country, rock, pop, or blues, when she gets through with it, it is pure R&B. She gets inside a song and shapes and twists it to convey all of the emotion that can be wrought from the lyric.
In 1962, at age 16, she became Bettye LaVette. Her first single was “My Man – He’s a Loving Man” on Atlantic Records. She worked alongside Charles “Honi” Coles, and Cab Calloway in the Toni Award winning Broadway musical, “Bubbling Brown Sugar” in the role of Sweet Georgia Brown.
Her CD, A Woman Like Me won the W.C. Handy Award in 2004 for “Comeback Blues Album of the Year”. She was also given a prestigious Pioneer Award by The Rhythm & Blues Foundation.
