It’s rare that well-known bands can suppress their identity when they back others, but the Drive-By Truckers follow the lead of Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section veterans Spooner Oldham and David Hood (Trucker and album producer Patterson Hood’s father) and provide sensitive, discreet support for soul veteran Bettye LaVette. Then again, it’s fair to wonder if anyone could upstage her. The Scene of the Crime is a classic soul album, and it’s all about her. She’s kittenish on “I Still Want to be Your Baby,” on her knees pleading on Frankie Miller’s “Jealousy,” and fragile on Willie Nelson’s “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces.” The winner, though, is the song where LaVette and the band meet on more equal footing: “Before the Money Came (The Ballad of Bettye LaVette).” Co-written by LaVette and Patterson Hood, the track hits a sexy Faces groove while LaVette tells her story. It’s not self-pitying or a chronicle of rip-off days; she talks about who she knew and what she was doing while peers were hitting it big, but the bounce and knowing growl she uses to sing the title phrase make the song sound like a winner’s song—a winner who knew enough to appreciate the victory.