Every time Bonnie Raitt performs in the Twin Cities, her older brother, Steve, a local music producer, sits in on one song. On Thursday at the State Fair grandstand, Steve, who died in April of brain cancer, informed nearly every song in a remarkably emotional and unforgettable evening.

His little sister’s slide guitar was darker and moodier, her emotional ballads were more deeply felt (with Raitt on the verge of tears a couple of times), and her excessive chatter was filled with sadness, celebration and many things Minnesotan, from shout-outs to Steve’s friends to a mention of the previous night’s walleye dinner to an expression of her love for the Minnesota State Fair.

After Taj Mahal’s opening exploration of various shades of the blues, Raitt, 59, took the stage and dedicated the show to her brother, saying, “As far as I’m concerned he’s standing right here with me.”

Under these extremely personal circumstances, she relied often on Twin Cities keyboardist Ricky Peterson, who joined her band this year and was one of Steve’s best friends, to lift her up musically and spiritually. She sat next to him at the keyboards singing the lump-in-her-throat “Nick of Time,” which caused her to well up and, in the end, literally lean on Peterson and then kiss him on the lips.

After her stinging slide solo to end “Love Sneakin’ Up on You,” the song Steve used to always sing with Bonnie, she closed her eyes and blew a kiss to the sky. Then she reached new emotional heights with her always penetrating hit ballad “I Can’t Make You Love Me”; afterward, she slunk across the stage and gave Peterson, who had ended the piece with a soulfully jazzy solo, a long, long kiss.

At that point, Raitt summoned out Mahal and his Phantom Blues Band for a two-band jam. “The gloves are coming off,” she declared, “and all the sadness put aside.”

Raitt relished playing with a horn section for a change, and she clearly dug duetting with Mahal, a friend of 40 years but a first-time tour mate. They got playful on the sassy medley of “Tramp” and “Scratch My Back,” and tore it up on her snarling “Gnawin on It” (dedicated to Peterson and his wife, Lu) and the rockin’ “Comin’ Home.”

Raitt has been highly emotional at the State Fair before — in 1990 on the night after her friend, guitar hero Stevie Ray Vaughan, died in a helicopter crash, and in 1998 when her mom sang with her for the first time in public (which Raitt mentioned on Thursday).

But, on this 100th anniversary of the grandstand in front of 7,275 people, Raitt showed how her blues/rock/pop/R&B music, filled with pain and joy, was the perfect way to grieve and celebrate her love of her brother and best friend.

How emotional was it for Bonnie Raitt at the State Fair on Thursday?

She cried during the fireworks after her show, she told me a short time later. She said it was particularly tough on Wednesday when she went on Lake Minnetonka with a bunch of friends of her older brother, Twin Cities producer Steve Raitt, who died in April of brain cancer.

She admitted that there were a couple moments onstage Thursday where she had to summon Steve for emotional rescue to get through a poignant song. She said she’d experienced a similar type thing when her father, Broadway star John Raitt, had died and she had to sing shortly after his passing. She merely thought of him when she was overcome with emotion.

During the fair concert, Raitt gave shout outs to some of Steve’s friends, including drummer Bobby Vandell, and to her many Minnesota friends, including Willie Murphy, Tony Glover and John Koerner.

Raitt’s teaming with longtime friend but first-time tourmate Taj Mahal made the structure of the evening different. He and his band opened (loved the swinging instrumental “Seven Eleven” and when he said “Fishin’ Blues” should be the Minnesota state song), then Raitt and her band performed; Taj sat in with her on a couple of acoustic numbers and then he and his band joined her for seven songs at the end.

Here is Raitt’s set list:

Sho Do
Thing Called Love
Nick of Time
Your Good Thing Is About to End
Good Man Good Woman
Satisfied (acoustic w Taj)
Done Changed My Way of Living (w Taj)
Angel from Montgomery
I Will Not Be Broken
Something to Talk About
Love Sneakin’ Up on You
I Can’t Make You Love Me
BOTH BANDS COMBINED:
Tramp
Scratch My Back
She Felt Too Good
She Caught the Katy
Wah She Go Do
Love So Strong
Gnawin’ on It
Comin’ Home

About The Author

Jon Bream

Music Reporter and Critic

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.

Bream has interviewed such music royalty as the King of Pop (Michael Jackson), the Queen of Soul (Aretha Franklin) and Prince as well as Bob Dylan, U2, three Beatles, four Rolling Stones and all of Maroon 5. He has performed with Alice Cooper, jogged with Willie Nelson and walked the streets of New York with Bruce Springsteen. A longtime voter for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bream has also written for the Los Angeles Times, Billboard, Vibe and other publications. He has a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota, where he established the Jon Bream Scholarship for Arts Criticism.

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