By Eddie Huffmann, Special to Go Triad
November 21, 2013
One fall day in 1973, Bonnie Raitt walked up Henderson Street in Chapel Hill to a curious sight outside the record store where she was scheduled to meet fans and sign albums.
Perched in the bed of a Volkswagen single-cab pickup truck parked in front of the Record Bar was a group of musicians performing a Spider John Koerner song “Takin’ My Time.”
“We were huge fans of Bonnie Raitt,” says Bland Simpson, who would go on to become a pianist and singer for the Red Clay Ramblers, the author of multiple books and a writing teacher at UNC-Chapel Hill. At the time, he was in a band called the Southern States Fidelity Choir. Raitt was in town to play a show at Memorial Hall.
“We just wanted to give her a big welcome,” Simpson says.
He played a five-octave rehearsal piano in the back of Jim Wann’s VW truck. They knew Raitt would know the song — it inspired the title track to her then-new third album. The group that recorded “Takin’ My Time,” Minneapolis-based Koerner, Ray and Glover “were very soulful, rockin’ folksters,” Simpson says. “That’s what Bonnie was.”
Bonnie Raitt greets fans at the Record Bar in Chapel Hill in 1973
Bonnie Raitt responds to a grand reception at the Record Bar in Chapel Hill in 1973- A group of musicians set up their instruments in the bed of a pickup and performed Spider John Koerner song, “Takin’ My Time" as Raitt walked up to the store.
A group of musicians perform the Spider John Koerner song, “Takin’ My Time” in the bed of a pickup in front of the Record Bar in Chapel Hill in 1973. The group sang to welcome Bonnie Raitt at a meet-and-greet for fans.
Bonnie Raitt greets fans at the Record Bar in Chapel Hill in 1973. She was in Chapel Hill to perform at Memorial Hall in support of her third album.
Marvin Veto, a graphic designer who lives outside of Greensboro, was a sophomore at Carolina and a big Raitt fan.
“There was something singular and intriguing about her vocal style that grabbed me — tough, yet vulnerable and sexy,” Veto says. “There were very few women in rock at that time, so she made a huge impression on me.”
When he heard about the Record Bar appearance, he grabbed his camera and headed downtown, documenting the occasion for posterity.
“I wasn’t sure if Bonnie knew who her serenaders were, but she was visibly blown away by the reception,” Veto says.
Adds Simpson, “I remember she started smiling and cocked her head and kept walking toward us. And then just started laughing and shaking her head and saying, ‘I haven’t heard that song in way too long.’”
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Jazz and blues fests are everywhere now, and Americana is going strong on college radio. What I'm hearing is an appreciation of real music.
Bonnie Raitt
I speak my mind and come from a place of conscience, as well as have fun as a musician.
Bonnie Raitt
I don't know if I'm a heroine; I'm just somebody that can cheer the troops by singing to folks, and have receptions after the show, and tithe a dollar of every ticket sale for all kinds of different great charities and social action groups.
Bonnie Raitt
Quakers are known for wanting to give back. Ban the bomb and the civil rights movement and the native American struggle for justice - those things were very, very front-burner in my childhood, as were the ideas of working for peace and if you have more than you need, then you share it with people who don't.
Bonnie Raitt
The consolidation of the music business has made it difficult to encourage styles like the blues, all of which deserve to be celebrated as part of our most treasured national resources.
Bonnie Raitt
I think my fans will follow me into our combined old age. Real musicians and real fans stay together for a long, long time.
Bonnie Raitt
I grew up in Los Angeles in a Quaker family, and for me being Quaker was a political calling rather than a religious one.
Bonnie Raitt
I just play the music that I love with musicians that I respect, and fortunately, I'm in a position where people are willing to play with me, and perhaps I can do something to help them.
Bonnie Raitt
I never saw music in terms of men and women or black and white. There was just cool and uncool.
Bonnie Raitt
Solar power is the last energy resource that isn't owned yet - nobody taxes the sun yet.
Bonnie Raitt
Religion is for those who are scared of hell, and spirituality is for those who have been there.
Bonnie Raitt
Life gets mighty precious when there's less of it to waste.
Bandana Blues is and will always be a labor of love. Please help Spinner deal with the costs of hosting & bandwidth. Visit www.bandanablues.com and hit the tipjar. Any amount is much appreciated, no matter how small. Thank you.
Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vol. 2, the anticipated new John Prine tribute record from Oh Boy Records, is out today. Stream/purchase HERE.
Created as a celebration of Prine’s life and career, the album features new renditions of some of Prine’s most beloved songs performed by Brandi Carlile (“I Remember Everything”), Tyler Childers (“Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You”), Iris DeMent (“One Red Rose”), Emmylou Harris (“Hello In There”), Jason Isbell (“Souvenirs”), Valerie June (“Summer’s End”), Margo Price (“Sweet Revenge”), Bonnie Raitt (“Angel From Montgomery”), Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (“Pretty Good”), Amanda Shires (“Saddle in the Rain”), Sturgill Simpson(“Paradise”) and John Paul White (“Sam Stone”). Proceeds from the album will benefit twelve different non-profit organizations, one selected by each of the featured artists.
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Bonnie Raitt - Write Me a Few of Your Lines/Kokomo Blues
60 years anniversary celebration of Arhoolie
December 10, 2020
Arhoolie Foundation celebrates it's 60th anniversary (1960-2020) with an online broadcast.
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Bonnie Raitt - Shadow of Doubt
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
October 3, 2020
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass celebrates it's 20th anniversary with an online broadcast titled “Let The Music Play On”.
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Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs - You Don't Know Like I Know
Farm Aid 2020 On the Road
Sam & Dave classic written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter.
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Sheryl Crow & Bonnie Raitt - Everything Is Broken
[Eric Clapton’s Crossroads 2019]
Eric Clapton, one of the world’s pre-eminent blues/rock guitarists, once again summoned an all-star team of six-string heroes for his fifth Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2019. Held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, the two-day concert event raised funds for the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, the chemical dependency treatment and education facility that Clapton founded in 1998.
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'A Tribute To Mose Allison'
Celebrates The Music Of An Exciting Jazz Master
Raitt contributed to a new album, If You're Going To The City: A Tribute To Mose Allison, which celebrates the late singer and pianist, who famously blended the rough-edged blues of the Mississippi Delta with the 1950s jazz of New York City.
NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to Bonnie Raitt about her friendship with the Mose Allison. They're also joined by Amy Allison — his daughter, who executive produced the album — about selecting an unexpected list of artists to contribute songs to the album.
Recorded on tour June 3, 2017 - Centennial Hall, London - Ontario Canada