Betty LaVette transformed the packed Wood Center Ballroom into a blues lounge on Sunday.
The 60-year-young singer from Detroit lived every word she sang on the stage. She danced the music that sounded like it was being torn from her soul, owning every word. LaVette garnered reciprocal understanding from the audience, which spent the entire hour-and-a-half concert nodding its heads and tapping its feet along with the music.
"Alaska is somewhere where you just don't think you'll be," LaVette said laughingly on stage as the concert began.
Applause from the crowd of about 200 filled all the gaps between songs. The crowd cheered until it was cut off by the opening chords of the next intro, or by words from LaVette herself. She got three standing ovations for her performance.
Audience members embraced soulful ballads like "Souvenirs" and "Your Turn to Cry" just as readily as her more upbeat numbers like "Right in the Middle of Fallin' in Love," off of her Motown record.
Donna Anger, affiliated with the UAF International Programs Office, said she loved the concert. Though she had never heard of LaVette before tonight, she thought the concert was "one of the best we've had in a long time." She counts herself as one of LaVette's many new fans.
"I thought she really connected with the audience. You could tell she sang with heart." Anger said
LaVette commented after her performance that singing the way she does requires all her focus. She compared her stage performance to sex.
"If you were making love to someone," LaVette asked, "could you tell if they were thinking about something else?"
"What's going to stick with me is a quote from one of her songs: 'If you live in the moment, the moment lasts forever,'" said education graduate student Mark Olvmixon.
The New York Times touted her 2005 album as one of "harrowing beauty," and critics from Variety and the New York Post also say that her star is rising.
Her album "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise" was a critical success resurrecting a voice that has sung soulful R&B for almost half a century.
The album features songs by famous singers/songwriters in varying genres, from rock ballads by the short-haired Sinead O'Connor to country songs written by the bulbous Dolly Parton, as well as a few numbers that are classical rhythm and blues. It garnered positions on "Top 10" lists across the World Wide Web, including CNN, NPR, and Amazon.
"Up 'til now I ain't ever won nothing," LaVette confessed to the audience. "But fortunes change and mine certainly have."
Later she reiterated the importance of finally getting the respect she deserves for her remarkable voice, one that sounds like it's flavored by cigarettes, whiskey, and more than a lifetime of experiences.
"I am extremely happy to be finally recognized. I am not going to die unknown" LaVette said.
LaVette was accompanied by Alan Hill directing, doing vocals, and the keyboard. William Farris rocked the guitar, Patrick Prouty strummed bass, and the Darryl Pierce pounded the drums.
She concluded the performance with an a capella solo learned from her mother. She poured her final words straight from her heart into the microphone.
"I am walking through this desert," she sang. "But I tell you that I'm not scared although it's so hot, I've got everything I've ever requested and I do not want what I have not got."
