RED-HOT HOMECOMING BLUES VETERAN BETTYE LAVETTE RAISING HELL IN THE U.S.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

A star in Britain, ignored at home, real-life r&b singer Bettye LaVette is another in the long line of neglected American soul greats now enjoying the spotlight on her own turf.

European critics compare her to Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, but LaVette has her own fire-breathing delivery, at once romantic, brash and delightfully abrasive. In concert, she's as hard a worker as Tina during the Ike years.

Unlike most of her peers, LaVette didn't grow up singing gospel in a Baptist church. As she puts it, ``I'm a child of the blues,'' which is the music she heard as a child in Detroit.

Recording for 14 different labels during the '60s and '70s, LaVette had a Top 10 r&b single in 1962 at age 16 with ``My Man - He's a Loving Man'' (later covered by both Turner and Ann Peebles), but never scored a pop hit despite four decades of recording and performing, mostly on the East Coast. A 1969 track, ``Let Me Down Easy,'' became a sought-after club smash in the U.K. during the '70s, and she became a pivotal artist in that country's ``rare soul'' movement.

``I'm convinced if I had hit records all the way through, I wouldn't be as good a performer as I am now because I wouldn't have had to work as hard all these years,'' LaVette, 60, said from her New Jersey home. ``I was in no way prepared.''

Local music aficionados are counting the hours until LaVette returns to town Monday for a show at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood. While other Southern-soul crooners have launched comebacks in recent years, many were diminished on stage. But when LaVette appeared at another Los Angeles club in August, ending her hourlong set with an a cappella reading of Sinead O'Connor's ``I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got,'' listeners were visibly awed by her explosive, emotional range.

``I'm not holding a thing back,'' said LaVette, who also spent six years touring the hit musical ``Bubbling Brown Sugar'' as the lead. ``I've been messed around by so many people and had a lot of bad luck in my career. I'm singing songs now that mean something to me, that really put a point across.''

The point is well made in LaVette's superb new album, ``I've Got My Own Hell to Raise'' (Anti-), in which her raspy voice remakes 10 songs penned by females - including Fiona Apple's ``Sleep to Dream,'' Lucinda Williams' ``Joy,'' Joan Armatrading's ``Down to Zero,'' Aimee Mann's ``How Am I Different'' and Dolly Parton's ``Little Sparrow'' - into muscular Southern-soul anthems. (The disc was helmed by Joe Henry, who also produced the just-issued ``I Believe to My Soul,'' in which Peebles, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint and others made music in the Southern r&b mode.)

``It's hard for me to do songs written by contemporary women,'' LaVette said. ``A woman in the world of show-biz has an unusual point of view, to say the least. But I picked these 10 songs because I felt I could do something of my own with them.''

That fierce intensity led Esquire to declare LaVette ``the sexiest female vocalist alive,'' while comparing her to Janis Joplin in its October issue. Entertainment Weekly awarded an A-minus to ``I've Got My Own Hell to Raise'' and raved about it.

``Everybody today is an overnight success, which is what I wanted 40 years ago,'' LaVette said. ``There are so many young singers out there doing well now. I hope there's room for someone who isn't a kid anymore.

``But I don't want to be mislabeled. Whitney Houston is a pop singer - I am a soul singer.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

BETTYE LAVETTE

Where: Knitting Factory, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 10 p.m. Monday.

Tickets: $15. Call [phone]; knittingfactory.com.

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no caption (Bettye LaVette)