BETTE SMITH

Jetlagger 7/10

After years lost to a nine-to-five day job, smith’s belated debut taps exquisitely into vintage southern soul with a voice as huge as her Angela Davis afro and a raunchy rasp and scrape that channels Mavis staples, Etta James and Macy Gray with a beseeching gospel fervour befitting her church upbringing as a seventh Day Adventist. Mixing driving horns with psych guitar wig-outs, the band chug like Creedence jamming with Booker t & the MG’s, providing a groove-filled soundbed for smith’s swaggering, outsize voice on a set that mixes new compositions with delicious covers of classics by Isaac Hayes and the staple singers.