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Blue Rider Press
October 2012
On Sale: September 27, 2012
272 pages ISBN: 039915938X EAN: 9780399159381 Kindle: B0085DOXQQ Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir
Bettye LaVette celebrates her 50th year in show business
with her stunning memoir, A Woman Like Me, and her
new album, Thankful N' Thoughtful. As a teenager in Detroit, Bettye LaVette had a hit single
with “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man.” By the time she was twenty,
she had faded back into obscurity and was barely surviving
in New York City. For the next forty years, despite being
associated with legends such as Aretha Franklin, Otis
Redding, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown, she remained
relatively unknown outside a circle of devoted fans. Every
time it seemed that her dream of stepping into the spotlight
was finally coming true, bad luck smashed her hopes, again
and again. Then, after a lifetime of singing in clubs and
lounges, her unforgettable televised performances at the
2008 Kennedy Center Honors and at President Obama’s
pre-Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 2009 won
her the recognition she had sought for her entire life. Bettye LaVette’s career has been a one-of-a-kind
roller-coaster ride through the world of music; it has taken
her from the peaks to the pits and back. In this
unflinchingly honest memoir, she boldly recounts her
freewheeling childhood—her parents ran an illegal liquor
business out of their living room, which was frequented by
some of the top acts of the forties and fifties—her
short-lived conquest of the R&B world in the 1960s, her
decline into poverty and despair, and her recent comeback
and career revival, with two Grammy-nominated CDs and
numerous appearances on major television talk shows.
Poignant, brazen, and fearless, A Woman Like Me is a
tour de force from one of the most outspoken female
performers singing today—and she’s a force to be reckoned with.
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