Audio Mixer: David Barbe.

Liner Note Author: Patterson Hood.

Recording information: Chase park Transduction; FAME Studios, Muscle Shoals, AL; Water Music Recording Studio.

Photographers: Kevin Kiley; Bryan Sheffield.

Before Bettye Lavette's world-beating 2005 comeback album, I'VE GOT MY OWN HELL TO RAISE, she struggled through career tribulations for decades, a conspicuous indignity being Atlantic's refusal to release her 1972 Muscle Shoals sessions. Three-and-a-half decades later, she followed up HELL TO RAISE by returning to THE SCENE OF THE CRIME and recording in Muscle Shoals once more, backed not only by old-school sessioneers like David Hood, but by Hood's son Patterson's band, the Drive-By Truckers. The Truckers sublimate their rock tendencies, offering a greasy blend of soul and blues to back Lavette's throaty, passion-filled narratives. She winds her way through tunes by everyone from Elton John to John Hiatt, investing them all with powerful emotion, delivering a modern soul classic.

Before Bettye Lavette's world-beating 2005 comeback album, I'VE GOT MY OWN HELL TO RAISE, she struggled through career tribulations for decades, a conspicuous indignity being Atlantic's refusal to release her 1972 Muscle Shoals sessions. Three-and-a-half decades later, she followed up HELL TO RAISE by returning to THE SCENE OF THE CRIME and recording in Muscle Shoals once more, backed not only by old-school sessioneers like David Hood, but by Hood's son Patterson's band, the Drive-By Truckers. The Truckers sublimate their rock tendencies, offering a greasy blend of soul and blues to back Lavette's throaty, passion-filled narratives. She winds her way through tunes by everyone from Elton John to John Hiatt, investing them all with powerful emotion, delivering a modern soul classic.