Thee Bettye Swann

Over time, Betty Jean Champion, better known to her fans as Bettye Swann, has become my favourite female soul singer.  My love for her music started when I first heard Honest Jon's flawless compilation and increased to wild levels when my dad unexpectedly bought me a copy of Kent's compilation of the majestic sides she cut for Money Recordings.  Then came the 7"s.  I've bought a bunch of them.  The one I play most?  Probably this outstanding girl group soul clapper (track 17 on the aforementioned Money Recordings cd):

I never, even in my most wishful daydeams, expected to be able to see her sing live.  Amazingly, thanks to the saints at Kent Records, it could actually happen as she's scheduled to appear at Ady Croasdell's Cleethorpes 6Ts Weekender:

It will be her first performance in Europe.  It's almost too dizzy-making to contemplate that in the space of a week I could see the most significant group in my life, The Pastels (they play Glasgow's CCA with The Wake on June 1st), and the soul singer whose voice I cherish the most.  Goosebumps!  Adrenalin!  That her best known work was released four decades ago doesn't dissuade me from wanting to see her sing in 2013.  After all, I saw Roger McGuinn 30 years after The Byrds cut "Mr. Tambourine Man" and that was unforgettable.  Also, Bettye's vocal performances were never about chandelier shattering or insecurely running up and down the scales to prove her chops like a lot of those less interesting performers who came after her.  They were so much more nuanced and expressive than that so if age has slightly altered her voice, it won't diminish her ability to deliver the songs; it may, if anything, give them even more poignancy.

I Want Sunday Back Again

Slowly, almost imperceptibly my tastes in soul music have shifted.  Where once I craved only the manic movers, I now yearn just as much for the swaying smoothies.  I guess this can be neatly summed up by saying that I can now appreciate some soul recorded in the 70s.  If I trace it back, this change of heart was prompted by hearing and adoring every single second of Honest Jon's' flawless Bettye Swann compilation cd a few years back.  That cd provided empirical evidence that soul music needn't only be about the spinning and high kicks of the numerous wonderful Kent and Goldmine Northern Soul cds and lps.  Were it needed, Go Ahead's (legendary Northern Soul DJ Richard Searling's current label) recent  7" reissue of Bettye's "I Want Sunday Back Again" provides further proof that there are treats to be had in the 70s output of 60s soul greats.  As ever with Bettye's records, it's all about her devastating vocals.  It scarcely matters what words she's singing when the tone and emotion in her voice can weaken your knees and moisten your eyes.  Only Glen Campbell ever matched her for non-mawkish yearning.  In the rush to bag Kent's Record Store Day exclusives I foolishly didn't buy a copy of it from Monorail.  Hopefully it's still there when I go back this weekend.  If it's not, I envy the person who bought it and who may even have it on their turntable right now. After all, YouTube is no match for vinyl is it?