{"id":2629,"date":"2012-03-25T13:34:34","date_gmt":"2012-03-25T18:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2629"},"modified":"2012-04-07T14:19:40","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T19:19:40","slug":"betty-lavette-nearer-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2629","title":{"rendered":"Betty LaVette – Nearer To You"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong>
\nBetty Lavette<\/strong>
\n <\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\/Download Betty LaVette – Nearer To You<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/del><\/p>\n

Greetings all.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

I hope all is well in your corner of the soulful world.<\/p>\n

Before we get started, I should mention that I’ll be joining the HPRS<\/strong> vinyl collective to sell some records this coming Saturday 3\/31.<\/strong> The sale runs from 11-5 at 960 Green Street in Iselin, NJ<\/strong> (not too far off of Rt1). I’ll have a couple of boxes of LPs (lots of soul jazz and 60s rock) as well as a few boxes of 45s (funk, soul, jazz, rock etc) and some ephemera. If you’re in the area and have a taste for records come by and sample the wares.<\/p>\n

A while back I decided to dip back into the crates to pull out some choice stuff for to digimatize for the Funky16Corners Radio Show.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are so many records in my little record room (too many, at least for the allotted space<\/em>) that every once in a while I can start flipping through boxes and pull out all manner of unjustly neglected (by me<\/em>) records to listen to anew.<\/p>\n

All of the good ones eventually end up in this space or on the radio show (usually both<\/em>).<\/p>\n

I picked up today\u2019s selection many years ago out of some dollar bin or other.<\/p>\n

It was long before I really had any idea about Betty LaVette<\/strong> (I knew her name, but little else) and grabbed it because it was a cover of one of my favorite Betty Harris<\/strong> tunes, \u2018Nearer to You\u2019.<\/p>\n

It was Harris\u2019s biggest hit, making into the R&B Top 20 and the Pop Top 100 in the summer of 1967.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nearer To You\u2019 is one of the finest ballads to flow from the pen of the mighty Allen Toussaint<\/strong>, and it is one of Betty Harris\u2019s best performances.<\/p>\n

Now Ms LaVette has been featured in this space before.<\/a><\/p>\n

Though she never really much chart success to speak of (though the flip side of today\u2019s selection grazed the R&B Top 20), her discography, beginning in 1962 and moving through the next two decades on some of the finest soul labels in America is very solid indeed.<\/p>\n

She recorded a handful of 45s for Shelby Singleton\u2019s<\/strong> Silver Fox and SSS International in 1969 and 1970, the first of which featured today\u2019s selection on the B-side.<\/p>\n

Produced by Lelan Rogers*<\/strong>, LaVette\u2019s version of \u2018Nearer To You\u2019 is a vocal tour de force.<\/p>\n

LaVette\u2019s voice is a powerful and flexible instrument and she manages to wrap it around Toussaint\u2019s melody tightly, with a great southern soul backing.<\/p>\n

She has had a career resurgence in the 2000s, recording a number of new, and excellent albums.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tune, and I\u2019ll be back on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peace<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

*Lelan, brother of the famous Kenny and producer of the 13th Floor Elevators…<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Also, make sure that you check out the POAC link below (click on the logo). It’s a fantastic organization that provides services to our local autism community, with education and recreational events, and any contribution you could make would be greatly appreciated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betty Lavette Listen\/Download Betty LaVette – Nearer To You Greetings all. I hope all is well in your corner of the soulful world. Before we get started, I should mention that I’ll be joining the HPRS vinyl collective to sell some records this coming Saturday 3\/31. The sale runs from 11-5 at 960 Green Street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,14,12,18],"tags":[164],"class_list":["post-2629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-Gp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2629"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2673,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2629\/revisions\/2673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}