IMA Judge Bettye LaVette Releases New Album

9th Annual IMA Judge Bettye LaVette has released a 6-song digital EP, A Change is Gonna Come Sessions, on iTunes.


Having conquered the ghosts of a hard-luck past on her GRAMMY-nominated CD The Scene of the Crime, BETTYE LAVETTE shines a new light on that past with her latest, A CHANGE IS GONNA COME SESSIONS. The digital-only EP for Anti- Records, available exclusively through iTunes starting June 16, revisits BETTYE's forgotten post-Atlantic Records years as a nightclub singer, Broadway performer, and touring cast member opposite Cab Calloway in "Bubbling Brown Sugar."

The EP opens with a stirring solo version of Sam Cooke's posthumous Civil Rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come," a song which BETTYE sang with Jon Bon Jovi in January as part of the "We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial" concert. Joining BETTYE for these Sessions are pianist and musical director Al Hill, veteran bassist John Heard – who has accompanied such luminaries as Count Basie, Cole Porter, Ella Fitzgerald, and Art Pepper – drummer Danny Frankel (k.d. lang, Lou Reed), and Tom Hagerman from DeVotchKa on strings.

Click here to get the tunes.

And watch Bettye perform on Craig Ferguson below!