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Title: lost jem, now sparkles
Review: I never heard of Bettye LaVette before now. I work at a record store and we never carried anything from her until this album. I still haven't heard her older work, but I don't need to to know that she has been underappreciated for too long. While great blues singers like Etta James and soul singers like Arethra Franklin have gotten soft in their years, Bettye has just rippened to a raw open wound of pain and sorrow that I can believe in. But that doesn't mean she can't rock the roof. I recently got lucky enough to catch her live, and even though she covers a Lucinda Williams song about missing Joy, she was full of it that night.I'm just amazed that she has been able to take a collection of alternative, folk, and country tunes and turn them into her own rhythm and blues. Anti records should be proud to have presented Lavette back into the world.
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