richiebettye1

Bettye LaVette - 2009 tour dates (Summerstage tonight)

Richie Havens and Bettye LaVette (Photo: Kevin Kiley)
Richie Havens and Bettye Lavette

Richie Havens played a free, but wet show in Castle Clinton last night (7/23). Bettye LaVette (now labelmates with Alec Ounsworth) plays a free and hopefully-dry show tonight (7/24) at Central Park Summerstage (with the Budos Band). Her most recent release came out in June.

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.

All dates below….

Bettye Lavette – 2009 Tour Dates
7/24/2009 Central Park Summerstage New York NY
7/25/2009 Blues Under The Bridge Colorado Springs CO
8/8/2009 Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival Clarksdale MS
8/9/2009 San Jose Jazz Festival San Jose CA
8/22/2009 Roots Festival Madison WI
8/30/2009 Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival San Francisco CA
8/31/2009 Jimmy Mak’s Portland OR Evening with
9/1/2009 Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley Seattle WA Evening with
9/2/2009 Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley Seattle WA Evening with
9/4/2009 Anthology San Diego CA Evening with
9/5/2009 Long Beach Blues Festival Long Beach CA
9/12/2009 Playing With Fire Omaha NE
9/25/2009 The Sheldon Concert Hall St. Louis MO St. Louis Blues All Stars
9/26/2009 Singletary Center for the Arts Lexington KY