Outpost in the Burbs presents singer Betty LaVette on Saturday, Jan. 29, at 8 p.m. The concert will take place at the First Congregational Church, located at 40 South Fullerton Ave.
At the concert, LaVette will be accompanied by keyboard player Evan Mercer. She will be performing songs from throughout her 59-year career, including songs that she used to perform in small Detroit clubs. Some of these songs she does not perform with her full band.
Tickets purchased for her previously scheduled show will be honored on this date.
LaVette’s career began in 1962, at the age of 16, in Detroit. Her first single, “My Man — He’s a Loving Man,” was released on Atlantic Records. She recorded for numerous major labels, including Atco, Epic and Motown, over the course of the 1960s through the 1980s.
The 2000s started what LaVette calls her “fifth career.” Her album “A Woman Like Me” won the W.C. Handy Award in 2004 for Comeback Blues Album of the Year. She was also given a prestigious Pioneer Award by The Rhythm & Blues Foundation, was inducted into the Detroit Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, given an Unsung Award by the National R&B Society and inducted into The Blues Hall of Fame by the Blues Foundation.
LaVette has received Blues Music Awards for Best Contemporary Female Blues Singer and Best Soul Blues Female Artist. Since 2002, she has released eight albums, five of which have received Grammy nominations.
In 2017, LaVette signed with Verve Records and has since recorded two albums, both of which were produced by Steve Jordan, were critically acclaimed, and received Grammy nominations. The first was “Things Have Changed,” an album consisting of all Bob Dylan songs. Her latest, “Blackbirds,” is LaVette’s homage to the Black female singers of the 1950s who came before her.
Now, at 75 years old, LaVette is still performing with the ferocity of a woman half her age. She is one of very few of her contemporaries who were recording during the birth of soul music in the 1960s and is still creating vital recordings today.
Tickets for this show are on sale now and can be purchased via TicketLeap at outpostintheburbs.org.
The following policies will be in place for this show:
- To gain entry, every patron must show a completed vaccination record (dated at least 14 days before the show). Photocopy, a photo on your phone, proof via the DOCKET app (covid19.nj.gov/pages/vaxrecords) or Excelsior Pass (for New York residents) will be acceptable. A negative COVID test will not be accepted for entry.
- Masks will be required to be worn at all times during the show.
- Unvaccinated children of any age will not be permitted to attend.