fbpx
back
Artists

Bette Smith

"A rugged, chugging southern soul record... Like Betty Davis or Betty Wright before her, she's imbues tracks with shingly, sawtoothed texture, capable of breaking off a high note with a throaty cry or scraping so low and wide that she threatens to put her bass player out of work." - Billboard Magazine

placeholder

Bette Smith is a Brooklyn-based soul singer, whose latest album was released on Big Legal Mess / Fat Possum label. This album sees Bette reconnecting with the Deep South roots of the gospel, soul, and blues music she grew up singing in New York. It's a fantastic album - definite hints of Macy Gray and Tina Turner going on! Born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bette Smith reconnected with her musical roots in Memphis and Mississippi – and fulfilled a promise to her late brother in the process. Recording her debut full-length album in Mississippi brought her to the roots of the gospel she sang in the church and the soul music she heard on the block on hot summer nights music growing up on the corner of Nostrand and Fulton. The powerful ‘Jetlagger’ comes out September 29 on Big Legal Mess, a Fat Possum subsidiary. “The south came to me and grabbed me and pulled me down there. The southern migration came up and got me. My neighbors in Bed-Stuy influenced me,” she says.

Contact