With Thanks

Bettye LaVette has just released a new album, an autobiography and is madly touring her native United States in support of both, appearing at rock shows, festivals, book stores and theatres across the country.

“[I've been] finding jackets and proper glasses to wear so I can look like an authoress,” she bursts into a fit of laughter.

She doesn't sound weary, but happily concedes she has a lot on her plate. She has to, she says, to make up for lost time. “You know all of this is to try and make it easier,” she says in reference to her eventual retirement. “I can't just comfortably completely grow old right away; I've got to keep working if they keep offering me things so that I can eventually be comfortable. They've just given me my career in the last eight years.”

It was eight years ago that the singer, then a 58 years of age, was approached by Anti-'s Andy Kaulkin. To say LaVette had reservations about the deal is a gargantuan understatement; she giggles as she relays the details of their first meeting, but the sense of wariness remains.

“I'll tell you what I thought when Andrew came into my dressing room when I first met him after a show,” she begins rather sternly. “He's six-five, he only wears t-shirts – as does everybody at the company except for the general manager – he had on no socks and his t-shirt wasn't as bright and white as I would have liked for it to be.

“He bent down to talk to me, he was rocking back and forth from one foot to the other, and he said, 'I'd like to do a record with you!' I thought to myself, 'I need a record soooo bad, why would you send me this?'” she laughs.

“But this young man really has the greatest faith in me, it's not a huge company but they've done everything they could and they've done everything I've ever asked. He pretty much doesn't bother me in the studio, after I decide on what I want to do he lets me do what I wanna do.”

While she acknowledges the work Anti- have put into her career, she says she's still coming to terms with what success really means in the current musical climate for a performer of her ilk. “I'm from the '60s so I keep expecting everything to be number one,” she exclaims. “I keep telling them – and everyone keeps telling me to stop telling them – I'm not selling any records! And they keep telling me I'm doing a fine job!”

While LaVette has always wanted to be a performer, she speaks frankly when asked if she thought she'd still be in the game. Yes, she did, but she figured she'd be far more successful.

“I thought that I would be doing it, but I thought that, at this point, I'd be where my contemporaries are,” she says, referring to the myriad of stars who make cameo appearances in her autobiography. “I thought that I would be a household name. I certainly thought I'd be doing it this long, I just thought that I wouldn't be so tawdry.”

Has she ever felt like throwing performing away for good? “Every time a deal fell apart,” she says. “But when they called to do another one, I forgot all about how I was never gonna sing again.”

The Comeback Queen was a common nickname bestowed upon LaVette upon her eventual shift into the mainstream focus, but it's not one that made a great deal of sense to her. “How can I come back when I never came the first time?” she exclaims.

Bettye LaVette plays the following shows:

Saturday 30 March – Thursday 4 April – Bluesfest Tyagarah, Byron Bay NSW
Thursday 4 April – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Friday 5 April – The Factory Theatre, Sydney