On Friday afternoon Spoon and Gossip, two powerhouse indie bands whose debt to soul music is as obvious as their members' white skin, will play back to back at the Red Marquee. Meanwhile, over on the White Stage, Jamie Lidell, whose recently released third album covers the distance between Motown and Memphis pretty thoroughly for a twenty-something Brit, will hold forth. The New Orleans funk band Galactic will be bringing along some great West Coast rappers on the same stage later that day, but just because it's ostensibly hip-hop doesn't mean it ain't got soul. And don't forget Sunday night Green Stage headliner Kiyoshiro Imawano, who could be considered Japan's most genuine soul singer, having served an apprenticeship with Booker T and the MGs back in the 90s when they backed him on one of his tours.

Of course, Bootsy Collins' tribute to James Brown on the White Stage Friday night will bring the funk and the soul, but if you want the genuine undorned thing, run don't walk to the Field of Heaven on Saturday afternoon to catch one of the originals, Bettye Lavette, a founding practitioner of what used to be called Northern soul. She recorded for Atlantic in Detroit before Motown became the biggest indie label in the world, and had a few top 20 hits herself. Her experimental soul sides of the 70s were critical smashes but mostly commercial duds, and she did finally end up on Motown, but that was in 1982, when Detroit was a long lost dream and Micheal Jackson and the Commodores were paying everybody's bills. But despite her recent comeback on the Anti- label as a kind of rediscovered curio, she never went away. She's been working the circuit for the better part of her 62 years, and she still smokes the stage with near-hysterical heat. She's a fool for it, and you'd be a fool to miss this opportunity.

Phil