Bettye LaVette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook

It's interesting to remember that The Who covered two James Brown tracks on their 1965 debut album. Or that Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones got their start as basically electrified R+B bands. As did Eric Clapton and the Yardbirds. Or that the Beatles early albums all boasted covers of songs by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy. Classic British rock has always worshipped at the soul and blues altar -- a fact that comes to mind listening to Bettye LaVette's jawdropping new album Interpretations (May 25, ANTI-), a collection of thirteen consummately soulful versions of Brit rock classics by the likes of Traffic, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Elton John and The Beatles. The operative word here, of course, is "interpretations". When Bettye LaVette takes your song, you might as well say goodbye because from that moment on she basically owns it.

The idea for the album came in 2008 when she performed a version of "Love Reign O'er Me" in honor of Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The 64-year-old singer's take on the song  brought down the house, elicited tears from Townshend and, said one critic, "punched a hole right through [it]...letting all the song’s emotion pour out in a way that its creators never conceived." (Watch the video after the jump). The songs on Interpretations are always in LaVette's tight vocal grasp as she molds the melodic phrasing, coaxing out every last bit of feeling and revealing them almost as if we were hearing them for the first time. Highly recommended.

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Bettye LaVette - "Love Reign O'er Me" (from the album Interpretations)

Bettye LaVette - "Isn't It A Pity" (by George Harrison) (live version from The Prairie Home Companion radio show)