Bettye LaVette - Change Is Gonna Come - Expanded Version (2003-2009)

I posted a couple of albums of Bettye LaVette's music, back in 2021. But those were from the 1960s, the start of her music career. She had a little success then, but then faded into obscurity for several decades. As her Wikipedia entry says, she "achieved only intermittent fame until 2005, when her album 'I've Got My Own Hell to Raise' was released to widespread critical acclaim, and was named on many critics' 'Best of 2005' lists." Since then, her career rebirth has continued going strong, all the way until the current day (as I write this in 2023), with her planning to release another new album soon, despite being 77 years old.

She didn't record much during her lost decades, so there isn't material there for stray track albums. But I plan on posting some more stray track albums from her career rebirth, starting with this one.

The bulk of this album is an EP released in 2009 called "Change Is Gonna Come Sessions." By 2009, she still wasn't that well known. But in January 2009, she sang of duet of the Sam Cooke classic "A Change Is Gonna Come" with Jon Bon Jovi at the presidential inauguration celebration for Barack Obama. Her performance was considered a highlight and got a lot of attention. It led to this EP, which naturally contained a studio version of "A Change Is Gonna Come" (without Bon Jovi this time). The rest of the EP (tracks 5 through 10) consisted of more covers of classic songs.

That EP is only 24 minutes long. But prior to that, she performed four more covers for various tribute albums, from 2003 to 2007. So those make up four of the first five songs here. The other one is "Laughter Ever After," in which she sang the lead vocals for a song on an album by Andy Lewis.

I enjoy LaVette's covers, because she does the songs in her own gruff-voiced, soulful style, rather than trying to be like the originals. That's definitely the case here.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Real Real Gone (Bettye LaVette)
02 Laughter Ever After (Andy Lewis & Bettye LaVette)
03 Night Time Is the Right Time (Bettye LaVette, Andre Williams & Nathaniel Mayer)
04 What's Happening Brother (Dirty Dozen Brass Band with Bettye LaVette)
05 Streets of Philadelphia (Bettye LaVette)
06 A Change Is Gonna Come (Bettye LaVette)
07 'Round Midnight (Bettye LaVette)
08 God Bless the Child (Bettye LaVette)
09 Ain't No Sunshine (Bettye LaVette)
10 Ain't That Lovin' You (Bettye LaVette)
11 Lush Life (Bettye LaVette)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15208488/BettyeLVtte_2003-2009_ChngeIsGnnaComeExpnded_atse.zip.html

 The cover is exactly the same as the original EP, except I removed the word "Sessions."