Bette Smith

Bette Smith is an American soul, rock and blues singer, known for soulful rock music and her debut album Jetlagger and its 2020 follow-up.
==Early Life and Career==
Sharon Meriel Kathleen Smith, known professionally as Bette Smith, grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York (state). Though her Trinidadian parents forbade her to listen to secular music, her father, a choir director in the Seventh Day Adventist church the family attended, taught her to sing, leading to frequent featured roles in the church's gospel choir. Mahalia Jackson and Reverend James Cleveland became major early influences.
She also listened to secular artists like Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson when she could. With these and her gospel influences, she released an album called From The Well Of My Inner Child in 2006 using the stage name "Bette Stuy." But she was not yet pursuing singing as a full-time career. Instead, she graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Los Angeles in 2010, and studied at The New School in New York City, where in 2014 she earned a B.S. in Liberal Arts with an emphasis on Creative Arts Therapy, and at Columbia University. To earn a living she worked as a receptionist and on Wall Street.
She was inducted into the New York Blues Hall of Fame in 2012.
In 2013 after her older brother Louis, dying of kidney failure, urged her to pursue her dreams of becoming a singer. Again using the name Bette Stuy, she released in 2015 the EP Introducing Bette Stuy: This is Neo Blues, put together a band, and continued playing at New York City clubs and on the street.
==2017-Present==
A musician who knew Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers heard her singing at a street fair and put her in touch with Mathus. Mathus decided he wanted to work with her. She went to Mississippi with him and, with a live band, they recorded her debut album as Bette Smith, Jetlagger.
On 26 July 2017 Billboard premiered the video for the track "Manchild." Jetlagger was released on 29 September 2017 on Big Legal Mess Records (a subsidiary of Fat Possum Records). It included original songs as well as covers by the Staples Singers and Isaac Hayes.
In 2018 WNYC Studios' Radiolab invited her to contribute an original song to its compilation project called 27: The Most Perfect Album, with each track inspired by one of the 27 U.S. Constitutional amendments. She chose the 13th Amendment and contributed her song "Happy Warrior."
Jetlagger received reviews in major publications. BrooklynVegan premiered the video and PopMatters the audio for the track "I Found Love."
Smith toured in Europe promoting the album, appearing in 2018 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and festivals in Spain, France and The Netherlands. She toured Europe again in July 2019.
Together with Kirk Fletcher she released the single "Dance Monkey" on Cleopatra Records on 6 February 2020. Also that year the same label released her single with Jesse Johnson, "Memories." The second Bette Smith album, The Good, the Bad and the Bette, came out on 25 September 2020 on blues label Ruf Records.
Produced by Drive-By Truckers’ Matt Patton and engineer Bronson Tew, The Good, the Bad and the Bette included three songs co-written by Smith and includes contributions from Luther Dickinson from North Mississippi Allstars and Patterson Hood from Drive-By Truckers. Jim DeRogatis included it on his “Best Albums of 2020” list. The track "Fistful of Dollars" reached #1 on the Roots Music Report in April 2021. 
Her bookings in summer and fall 2021 included U.S. tours with the Drive-By Truckers and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, an appearance at the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, and her own "Bustin’ Out of Brooklyn Tour ‘21." In 2022 she performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Her studio collaborations in 2020 and 2021 included tracks with Joe Louis Walker, Larry Brown (musician)|Larry Brown, Fabrizio Grossi & Soul Garage Experience, and others.
On 25 February 2022 she and Kirk Fletcher released another single on Cleopatra Records, a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar (Rolling Stones song)|Brown Sugar." Her summer 2022 festival bookings included Calgary Folk Music Festival, Blues From The Top Festival and Kitchener Blues Festival. 
==Personal Life==
Bette Smith lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is a cousin of gospel singer Wintley Phipps.
==Discography==
===Albums===
Title 	Artist 	Year	Label 	Producer
The Good, The Bad and The Bette 	Bette Smith 	2020	Ruf Records 	Matt Patton, Bronson Tew
27: The Most Perfect Album 	Bette Smith, Dolly Parton, They Might Be Giants, Devendra Banhart, Kevin Morby and Others	2018	 	Jad Abumrad, Suzie Lechtenberg, Julia Longoria, Alex Overington, Kelly Prime, Sarah Qari
Jetlagger 	Bette Smith 	2017	Big Legal Mess Records	Jimbo Mathus
Introducing Bette Stuy: This is Neo Blues	as Bette Stuy 	2015	 	
From The Well Of My Inner Child 	as Bette Stuy 	2006	 	
===Singles as Artist===
Title 	Artist 	Year	Label 	Producer
"Brown Sugar" 	Bette Smith and Kirk Fletcher	2022	Cleopatra Records	
"Dance Monkey"	Bette Smith and Kirk Fletcher	2020	Cleopatra Records	
"Memories" 	Bette Smith and Jesse Johnson	2020	Cleopatra Records	
===Singles/Tracks as Featured Artist===
Title 	Artist 	Year	Label 	Producer
"Lady in Red" 	Joe Louis Walker feat. Bette Smith 	2021	Cleopatra Records	Scott Petito
"With or Without You" 	Fabrizio Grossi & Soul Garage Experience feat. Bette Smith	2021	 	Fabrizio Grossi
"Life & Larry Brown: Judgement Day"	Larry Brown feat. Bette Smith et al. 	2020	 	Fabrizio Grossi
Category:American blues singers
Category:American rock singers
Category:American soul singers