"Bettye LaVette offers jazzy interpretations of past classics on Blackbirds ... Bettye LaVette has many talents. During her 50-plus year career, she's been celebrated as a soul, rock, R&B, Americana, funk, gospel, and country music singer, as a songwriter and an interpreter of other people's work, and recently was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Her latest album, Blackbirds, on the Verve label, is mostly a jazz record".