Bettye LaVette

The greatest moment of the Obama inaugural concert was when Bettye LaVette dueted with a surprisingly simpatico Jon Bon Jovi on Sam Cooke's timeless "A Change Is Gonna Come." Here, the tough veteran soulster does another impassioned version of the song. Elsewhere, LaVette and a small jazz combo put a bluesy R&B spin on a batch of standards, old and new. Lady Day's "God Bless the Child" is lean and mean, Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" is backed with delicate violins and Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" is brought back to the hardscrabble landscape of LaVette's youth.