Let Me Down Easy: In Concert (2000)

About this title: This German import captures the essence of Betty Lavette, Detroit's most underrated female singer. Betty approach to recording was similar to the way pugilists Sugar Ray Leonard, and Muhammad Ali approached boxing rounds -- dance and parry the first two minutes or so then crank it up the last 30 seconds. The first two minutes of a song was just a means to get to the juicy part near the fade for Betty, where she goes into her hiccups, vocal gymnastics, oh yeah's, and sermonizing. Philadelphia International Records was tailor-made for Betty's style (since they let singers "go off" on the songs' ... read more

Tracks:

1. My Man [Matthews/Bennett]
2. Damn Your Eyes [Bogard/Wyrick]
3. Right in the Middle (Of Falling in Love) [Dees]
4. You'll Never Change [Schofield/West]
5. Almost [Thomas/Mason]
6. Your Turn to Cry [Gerald/Price/Simon]
7. He Made a Woman Out of Me [Burch/Hill]
8. Let Me Down Easy [Holloway/McDougal]

Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is further described below.