Eugene Weekly : Calendar : 10.13.05

We're going to have to toot our own horn a little, this week, but it won't happen again! (At least, not 'til next year.) This Saturday, the McDonald Theatre hosts the Eugene Weekly Best of Eugene Awards Show, a gala event with music, performance, award presentations and more, MC'd by Denny Guehler. Performers include Norma Fraser, On the First Day … They Were Kittens, Los Mex Pistols del Norte, Laura Kemp and more; award presenters include Mason Williams (right), John Fischer, Jim & Ginevra Ralph, Shelley Kurtz, the Eugene Symphony's Giancarlo Guerrero and more — including some EW staff members. The whole extravaganza is a benefit for FOOD for Lane County; a wee donation of $3-$10 gets you in the door. And after the awards have been handed out, you can head to John Henry's for the after-party, with music from The Visible Men and the Audio Schizophrenic. You know you want to know who the Best of Eugene winners are before they appear in the paper next week! See Saturday Calendar.

With the finalists for this year's awards just recently announced, it's time for the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour, stopping in Eugene at Tsunami Books. Four finalists will read from their shortlisted books: Carmen Bernier-Grand from César (children's literature); Laton Carter from Leaving (poetry); Maxine Scates from Black Loam (poetry); and Bob Welch from American Nightingale (general nonfiction). The Oregon Book Award winners will be announced Nov. 11, but that ceremony's way up north in Portland — why miss this chance to see some of the finalists here in town? See Thursday, Oct. 22 Calendar.

Soul singer Bettye LaVette has been recording since 1962, when her first single "My Man — He's a Loving Man" was a top 10 R&B hit. Over the years, a string of singles followed, mostly covers, which LaVette prefers to sing. But only six of her singles made it onto the R&B charts, and none into the pop charts, and it wasn't until 1982 that a Bettye LaVette full-length album saw the light of day. And it's just now — more than 20 years later — that LaVette's starting to get mainstream attention. Her 2003 album, A Woman Like Me, won a W.C. Handy Award for Comeback Blues Album of the Year, and her new release, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, has been getting rave reviews. LaVette's interpretations of a collection of songs by women songwriters from across genres (including Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams, Sinead O'Connor and Aimee Mann) show the mature point of view of an expert soul singer making lyrics and melodies her own. The New York Times called the record "an album of harrowing beauty." LaVette graces the stage at Cozmic Pizza this week. See Wednesday Calendar.