Bonnie Raitt, Chris Stapleton and Gary Clark Jr. helmed a six-string salute to blues great B.B. King with a performance of “The Thrill is Gone” at the 58th Grammy Awards Monday.
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The breakout country star and blues hotshot opened the performance, trading vocals, and, more importantly, solos, before Raitt sidled in between them with a devastating slide-guitar run. The trio then each sang a line of the song’s final verse and made one last trip across the fretboard to bring “The Thrill is Gone” to a mournful close.
Per the Los Angeles Times, Stapleton — country’s breakout star of 2015 — was tapped for the tribute after Grammy telecast executive producer Ken Ehrlich saw a video of the singer covering “The Thrill is Gone” on YouTube. Raitt was then added to the performance at Stapleton’s suggestion.
King died last May at the age of 89. In a tribute penned for Rolling Stone, Raitt summed up the musician’s signature guitar style, which left an indelible mark across the musical spectrum: “Every great blues guitarist has his own style. But with B.B., it was about his vibrato, his phrasing and the licks he chose — and his restraint. It was all about what he played and what he didn’t play. He was sweet and eloquent in his playing, but when he turned it on, he could be fierce.”
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Rock Me Baby Medley (B.B. King Tribute) – Joe Louis Walker/Guests – 1995 Kennedy Center Honors
GARY CLARK JR, BONNIE RAITT TALK ABOUT BB KING GRAMMY TRIBUTE
One overlooked tribute at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards last week was the tribute to the late BB King featuring Chris Stapleton, Bonnie Raitt, and Gary Clark Junior, and in this interview Raitt and Clark talk about the tribute, working with Chris Stapleton, and their interactions with the late great blues legend.
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A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn (Trailer)
Recorded in Austin, Texas in 1995, A Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan is a live celebration of the celebrated modern blues guitarist featuring 10 electrifying performances by B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Dr. John and more.
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Lightning In A Bottle
On February 7, 2003, renowned artists across music genres and generations commandeered the stage at New York City"s Radio City Music Hall to pay tribute to their common heritage and passion: the blues. Shared with thousands of fans in attendance, legendary performers from the roots of rock, blues, jazz, and rap joined forces for a once-in-a-lifetime salute to the blues benefit concert whose proceeds went to musical education.
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Night Life – Bonnie Raitt & BB King – Live 1993 – Willie Nelson tribute
Rock Me Baby Medley (B.B. King Tribute) – Joe Louis Walker/Guests – 1995 Kennedy Center Honors
GARY CLARK JR, BONNIE RAITT TALK ABOUT BB KING GRAMMY TRIBUTE
One overlooked tribute at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards last week was the tribute to the late BB King featuring Chris Stapleton, Bonnie Raitt, and Gary Clark Junior, and in this interview Raitt and Clark talk about the tribute, working with Chris Stapleton, and their interactions with the late great blues legend.
A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn (Trailer)
Recorded in Austin, Texas in 1995, A Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan is a live celebration of the celebrated modern blues guitarist featuring 10 electrifying performances by B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Dr. John and more.
Lightning In A Bottle
On February 7, 2003, renowned artists across music genres and generations commandeered the stage at New York City"s Radio City Music Hall to pay tribute to their common heritage and passion: the blues. Shared with thousands of fans in attendance, legendary performers from the roots of rock, blues, jazz, and rap joined forces for a once-in-a-lifetime salute to the blues benefit concert whose proceeds went to musical education.
Night Life – Bonnie Raitt & BB King – Live 1993 – Willie Nelson tribute
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From BRHQ - Join Bonnie on Fri, Jan 15, at 7pm PT/10pm ET for the FREE encore live stream celebration “Love You Madly - A Streaming Event for Santa Cruz Fire Relief”. Steve Earle, Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs, Sammy Hagar (The Red Rocker), Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Joe Satriani, Los Lobos, Colin Hay and dozens more are joining to help friends and fans in Santa Cruz who need our help in recovering from 2020's historic devastating wildfires. Tune in at 2nu.gs/LoveYouMadly, donate at www.cfscc.org/loveyoumadly, and see more videos at santacruzfirerelief.org ~Get a reminder about the stream here: fb.me/e/1Sesjf1Ra #LoveYouMadly #SantaCruzFireRelief ... See MoreSee Less
Bonnie Raitt: “One person on a guitar or slide guitar is such a mournful lonely sound, like a human voice, that can express so many different emotions from longing to sexual heat to aching and betrayal,” Raitt said in a recent telephone interview. “The guitar is a very expressive instrument in general and there was something about the starkness and soulfulness and the dark night of the soul.” Raitt, whose father was actor and Broadway star John Raitt, said she would listen to blues albums that her brother would bring home from college, along with Mississippi John Hurt and Mississippi Fred McDowell. In a twist of fate, she ended up traveling with McDowell early in her career.
“He had a style of Delta blues guitar and slide playing and there was something about his soulfulness and the rhythm that he played and his touch on the guitar just really got me,” she said.
“It wasn’t all about your looks or having a hit single back in the late ’70s when I started otherwise I would have never gotten a shot at it because I had no interest in being a big pop mainstream star,” Raitt said. “I just played guitar and wanted to play in folk music clubs and have a small modest following.” ... See MoreSee Less
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.
