photos by Jack SilvermanÂ
Bettye believe it
“Dear God: Please, puhleeeeze, let us age so gracefully!” So went our silent prayers as we reveled in the delight of BETTYE LAVETTE’s soul-stirring performance last Thursday. The Detroit R&B veteran, who’s enjoyed an overdue surge of popularity thanks to her 2005 gem I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise, was just three days shy of her 60th birthday at the Mercy Lounge show, yet she had more energy and charisma than most people half her age—and she looked fabulous, lithely dancing around as if her 5-inch spike heels were ballet slippers. She’s not a songwriter, but an interpreter, though she doesn’t so much interpret as reinvent, and she knows no boundaries when choosing her material: she dug into gems by John Prine, Joan Armatrading, Aimee Mann and Lucinda Williams, to name a few; her take on Williams’ “Joy” left no doubt that she’s lived those lyrics too. LaVette’s glorious voice can reach from the subtlest shadings to full-on belting, and she completely inhabits the characters of her songs, with the facial expressions and gestures of a theater veteran. As the show wound down, she delivered a stunning rendition of the Fiona Apple hit “Sleep to Dream” followed by a breathtaking a cappella version of Sinéad O’Connor’s “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got,” which might as well serve as LaVette’s personal credo—she exuded an air of self-assuredness and spiritual depth, giving the affair the nurturing energy of a worship service. And if that was the case, there were more than a few converts before the night was over. (Scroll down for more photos.) Liquid gold Murfreesboro veterans FLUID OUNCES and Chattanooga popsters THE GIGS combined forces Saturday night at the ’Boro Bar & Grill. The Gigs, who have plans to record a new LP with Murfreesboro producer Brian Carter, started things off with an explosion of ’90s-influenced power pop. Drummer ADAM THOMPSON’s wild antics reminded us of an octopus on speed. Fluid Ounces then served up a platter of piano pop, featuring quite a few impressive new tunes—not surprising, since frontman SETH TIMBS writes an EP’s worth of material every morning before breakfast—and old favorites such as “Poet Tree,” “Record Stack” and “Vegetable Kingdom.” The crowd begged for an encore and the band obliged, though Timbs’ voice was on the verge of cracking by the end of the night. Timbs says Fluid Ounces are currently recording demos of new material and have plans to enter the studio very soon with Nashville producer Eli Shaw, who helmed some of their material during the late ’90s for the now defunct Murfreesboro label Spongebath Records. They hope to have a new record out by the fall and will likely release it on their own. (Scroll down for photos.) Cellar-bration With all the great shows they’ve hosted, it seems much longer than a mere 12 months ago that MICHAEL GRIMES and GEOFF DONOVAN took the reins of The Basement. To celebrate the new regime’s one-year anniversary, Grimey and Geoff have put together a diverse three-act lineup that highlights the broad scope of their booking philosophy: Columbus, Ohio’s THE SUN play trippy, offbeat pop and released a DVD-only disc in 2005 that features videos for 14 songs (video clips are available at myspace.com/thesun); Murfreesboro’s latest eccentro-pop creation HOW I BECAME THE BOMB were terrific a couple weeks back on the very same stage; and JUKE JOINT SATURDAY, a reunion of Slow Bar’s sorely missed Juke Joint Monday crew, will include the Shack*Shakers’ MARK ROBERTSON and J.D. WILKES, guitarist-to-the-stars KENNY VAUGHAN and Los Straitjackets drummer JIMMY LESTER. Admission is a mere $5, and the first 75 people to show up will receive a free T-shirt commemorating the occasion. Write on! They don’t call Nashville the songwriting capital of the world for nothin’. Three of Music City’s finest won first prizes in the 10th Annual USA Songwriting Competition: DARRELL SCOTT (Country) for “Good Ol’ USA,” which will be on Faith Hill’s next album; DAVE BERG (Rock/Alternative) for “Leno Over Letterman”; and JEN FOSTER (Gospel) for “Amen.” For information on entering the next competition, visit www.songwriting.net. Help for Fredro America’s war on marijuana may be misguided, but that’s little consolation to Fred Perry, better known to Nashvillians as “FREDRO,” who’s been stuck in prison for a few months awaiting trial in the high-profile “Cartoon Network” pot bust in New York City. Fredro is a drummer and songwriter with the BROOKLYN COWBOYS, a band that at one time or another has included WALTER EGAN, JOY LYNN WHITE, BUDDY CAGE, SUPE GRANDA, BRIAN WALDSCHLAGER and a host of other luminaries. According to a friend of Fredro’s, the DEA is looking to make an example of everyone involved in the case, and has thus set bail at an astounding $3 million. (There are many alleged murderers who have lower bail.) Friends have organized a show at Mercy Lounge on Wednesday, Feb. 8, to help Fredro. On the bill: Waldschlager, Granda, THE WALTERNATIVE BAND (Egan’s group), FUGITIVE GLUE, TIM CARROLL, BILL LLOYD, STEVE ALLEN, JAIME KYLE, Doors tribute act LOST SIDESHOW and the synth-laden Europop-by-way-of-Nashville outfit ENTROPY64, featuring some of Music City’s top studio players. Down the pike • Oh boy! New Republic editor Martin Peretz will be spinning his favorite tunes at the Mercy Lounge! Oh, wait: turns out DJ PERETZ is none other than Jane’s Addiction/Porno for Pyros frontman PERRY FARRELL, who’ll treat Nashville to the kind of DJ sets he’s done every year at the Coachella fest. Advance tix for the Feb. 17 show are $10, $20 at the door; SPOON, CHIP B and ZAK DAVIS open. • Remember griping last year that the DINOSAUR JR. reunion show didn’t make it to Nashville? Gripe no more: the original lineup of J MASCIS, LOU BARLOW and MURPH will be living all over you April 9 at City Hall. Tickets for the 18-and-over show are $23.Bettye LaVette Fluid Ounces' Seth Timbs
