Music Review

I've Got My Own Hell to Raise (2005)

Bettye LaVette

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Credits

Release Date: Sep 27, 2005; Lead Performance: Bettye LaVette; Genre: R&B

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By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Chris Willman is a senior music writer for Entertainment Weekly

If Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Dolly Parton, and Lucinda Williams have anything in common, it's their reputation as gritty R&B songwriters. At least that's their shared status in the transfiguring hands of Bettye LaVette, a soul veteran making an unlikely comeback on I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, helmed by Joe Henry (who actually one-ups his Solomon Burke resurrection). When LaVette transforms Apple's ''Sleep to Dream'' into a wake-up call full of anguish and defiance, or turns Mann's profane ''How Am I Different'' chorus into a thing of raw beauty, Hell is heaven.

Posted Sep 23, 2005

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