Got in my new Bonnie Raitt album Slipstream and been listening to it almost non stop for a few days.
It’s her first album in seven years and she’s gone through a lot. She lost her dad in 2005. I recall a PBS special she did with John Raitt that was amazing. I get the impression from the CNN video that she lost a brother too during her time off.
I’ve been a big fan of Bonnie Raitt since high school in the 70’s. Awesome talent. Back then she was strictly Blues and R&B. She released her biggest album Nick of Time in 1989 that was more bluesy rock/pop.
Slipstream is a nice blend of Blues & R&B, Pop. I’m loving every song.
song samples check out Ain’t Gonna Let you go and Used to Rule the World
Saw Bonnie last month in New Orleans at Jazzfest; She was playing & singing as well as I have ever heard her, and is obviously still having a great time making music for her fans.
I’m a little jealous. I’d love to see Bonnie live.
I’m astonished the people on this board seem to have forgotten Bonnie Raitt. Gosh less than twenty years ago she had a huge string of hits and Grammys. Nick of Time won 3 Grammy Awards, and* Luck of the Draw* sold 13xPlatinum RIAA as 2010.
A major star that took a few years off to nurse her dying brother and grieve the loss of her father. I’ve been searching and searching for the PBS special she did with him. Seeing Bonnie singing Broadway show tunes with her famous dad was a treat.
Anyway, I’ll let this thread die peacefully and chill out to Bonnie’s newest release.
I love blues and adore Bonnie Raitt. I own six of her albums up through Green Light (1982) but I feel that her music was compromised by an effort to be commercially successful. I think the Warner Brothers was most responsible in the initial push towards mainstream but her real success came with her debut on Capitol so she probably didn’t leave Warner over resistance to a format change.
I think her best albums were Give It Up (1972) and Takin’ My Time (1973). I didn’t like Nick Of Time that much and for obvious reasons she went farther down that pop path. I’ve been curious about her new album but there are at least 100 more blues albums in line ahead of listening to it and probably 200 jazz records. So she doesn’t have a chance with me. The blues genre is dead and she made the right move. I’m happy that she’s successful and she’s not a complete sellout but she’s far enough across the line that she lost me.
I heard Bonnie Raitt several times in Houston, back in the early to mid 70’s. She played excellent slide guitar & loved the blues but was never a “pure” blues artist; she always did a few love tunes by various singer/songwriters. In fact, she was quite aware that she was the daughter of a Broadway star (who sent her to a Quaker school & began her life-long commitment to liberal causes)–not a sharecropper. In some of those shows long ago, she shared the bill with Little Feat–back when Lowell George was at the peak of his powers; they occasionally shared the stage.
Yes, she got more commercial–but she never exactly went disco. I’ll check out her new album on Rhapsody. Glad she’s back…
I’d love to see Bonnie live.