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Watch Bonnie Raitt leave B.B. King in awe with a series of stunning slide solos at the House of Blues Chicago in 2004
King once said that Raitt was the “best damn slide player working today”

on March 8, 2023 No comments

B.B. King, a man who knew a thing or two about blues guitar playing, once said that – in his view – Bonnie Raitt was the “best damn slide player working today.”

It’s an opinion few argued with at the time, and fewer still would take umbrage with today.

Raitt and King performed together on a number of occasions, one of which was the 2004 International Achievement Summit, which featured an evening concert at Chicago’s House of Blues headlined – in celebration of his induction into the Academy of Achievement (opens in new tab) – by King.

*Mayor Daley, Bonnie, B.B. King and Mavis Staples at the celebration honoring B.B. King’s induction into the Academy of Achievement at House of Blues, Chicago.* *June 10, 2004* © Ricky Fataar

Raitt performed first on her own, before teaming up with King for a spirited rendition of When Love Comes to Town, a song U2 recorded with King for their 1988 album, Rattle and Hum.

Prior to starting the song, Raitt hits King – much to his delight – with some absolutely searing unaccompanied slide licks. “She loves to mistreat me like that,” King jokes with the crowd in response. “She knows I’m crazy about it!”

You can see the video of the performance – which begins with Raitt performing her song, Love Sneakin’ Up on You on her own – below.

Armed with one of her signature Stratocasters, Raitt doesn’t stop with just the unaccompanied intro. Indeed, King – playing “Lucille,” his legendary Gibson ES-355 with no f-holes – seems more interested in listening to Raitt slide around the fretboard than in playing himself.

Though the cameras never get up close with Raitt, you can still get a great sense of her slide technique and how she – by wearing the guitar slide on her middle finger – switches seamlessly between rhythm and slide playing.

At various points, Raitt’s slide work causes King to egg the crowd into cheering her on mid-solo, and even – at one amusing point – get up out of his chair and dance.

“I taught myself to play, so my hand positions aren’t 100 percent correct – and I put the bottleneck on the wrong finger,” Raitt told Guitar World of her unique slide technique in a 2022 interview.

Bonnie Raitt: “I didn’t see anybody play slide, so I just figured it out in my room – and I put the bottleneck on the wrong finger!”

The blues-rock master takes us inside her bold new album, Just Like That…, and charts her never-ending journey through the world of slide guitar Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt returns to some of her beloved musical and lyrical themes on Just Like That…, her first new album in more than six years.

“You can play more if you have it on your ring finger. Fred McDowell used his little finger, but by then I was already down the road with it on my middle finger. I heard Robert Johnson and just tried to make myself sound exactly like whatever he was doing.”

King wasn’t the only electric guitar hero to be left slack-jawed by Raitt’s slide work. In a 2022 interview, Raitt revealed that none other than Prince asked her to teach him her technique.

Joe Bonamassa has also sung Raitt’s praises, naming her lead break on Thing Called Love (from Raitt’s 1989 album, Nick of Time) as one of the 10 greatest blues-rock guitar solos of all time.

“She plays slide, and you know it’s Bonnie Raitt and you just go, ‘How do you do that with a Stratocaster and a glass slide?’” Bonamassa told Guitar World in 2019.

“It’s because she just has a way of phrasing and it’s in the DNA and it’s intrinsic.”

“You hear what she does with this song, a John Hiatt song, and you go, ‘Wow, it’s just super-original.’ It’s very restrained, but super-effective.

“Then you put that voice on top of it and it’s just like, ‘Yes! That’s it!’ To me, Bonnie Raitt is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time.”

About The Author

Jackson Maxwell

Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.

Source: © Copyright Guitar World

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Raitt Uses Grammy Win to Raise Social Awareness
Bonnie Raitt has used her surprise win at the Grammy Awards to draw attention to the issue of organ transplants

on February 12, 2023 No comments

by Paul Cutler

Bonnie Raitt accentuated the positive, while ignoring the negative, in her latest response on social media following the controversy which surrounded her surprise win at the 65th Grammy Awards.

Raitt sent shockwaves through popular music when her “real-life” roots song “Just Like That” shut out popular artists like Harry Styles, Beyonce and Taylor Swift to win the sought-after Song of the Year Grammy.

There was a largely negative response in the mainstream media, with Rolling Stone labeling it as a WTF moment and declaring it “a typical Grammy blunder.” The magazine added: We thought the Grammys had moved beyond such bizarrely out-of-touch choices, but apparently not.”

And the U.K. Daily Mail declared: “So who is Bonnie Raitt?”

Showing the same dignity she displayed in her Grammy acceptance speech, Raitt posted on Facebook: “I’ve been so deeply moved, often to tears, reading the personal stories of hundreds of you, some of whom have had no familiarity with me or my music before I won that Grammy, and were curious why this song had won.”

Raitt was inspired to write her winning song after watching a news story about a mother who met the recipient of her dead son’s transplanted heart. Her endearing lyrics relate – in the first-person narrative – how the mother gets to hear her boy’s heart beating again:
I lay my head upon his chest
And I was with my boy again

And it was the issue of organ donation which dominated her Facebook response: “After listening, many of you wrote that you were moved to tears, even inspired to share your own heart-wrenching stories of either having your loved one’s life saved by an organ donation, or having decided at the height of the terrible shock and loss of losing a beloved, that you would donate their organs so that others could live. “

Raitt added: “So many messages from nurses and doctors in the field involved with transplants as well as people who were tragically not able to get an organ in time to save their loved one’s life. There are messages from the family members of people who wanted their organs to be donated, but are now living with the guilt when that wish, for whatever reason, was not able to be fulfilled. These stories run the gamut and I’m just blown open by the vulnerability and power of each of them.”

Raitt is no stranger to popular causes and her social activism dates back to her early recording days in the 1970’s. She has wasted little time in in converting the success of Just Like That” into raising awareness of organ donation: “May the song bring about even more awareness and motivation for more of us to support organ donation registration and infrastructure — removing obstacles that have hindered helping thousands connecting to facilitate this miraculous gift of life and help bring comfort to those suffering such tragic loss.”

And in her Facebook posting, she referenced her followers to an Op-Ed in USA Today by Dr Maureen McBride, the interim CEO of United Network for Organ Sharing.

As might be expected, Dr McBride used Raitt’s success to further the cause of organ donations. “He song was inspired, she said, by love and the grace and generosity of someone (who) donates their beloved’s organs tohelp another person live.”

She concluded: “Bonnie Raitt sang so beautifully about a life saved by an organ donor. Thousands of Americans are alive today because of transplants. Thousands join them every year. Nonetheless, we must take decisive action to best serve the thousands more who are still waiting.”

Another feature of Raitt’s Grammy speech which got much feedback, especially in the Americana music community, was how much she had been inspired to write following the death in 2020 of her old friend and collaborator John Prine.

In her latest posting she again referred to how seeing the news story on the transplanted heart had triggered memories of Prine: “I knew after it stayed with me for weeks, that I wanted to write my own story, inspired so much by John Prine’s music and his beautiful ‘Angel from Montgomery,’ which I’ve sung every show since hearing it in the early 70’s.”

Like many departed music legends, Prine’s fan base has not diminished since his loss and Raitt’s special tribute triggered a lively response across various social media fan sites. Prine’s widow Fiona Whelan Prine and Oh Boy Records, the independent record label Prine co-foundered, have also maintained a high profile in the past two years. And his official site gratefully acknowledged Raitt’s kind words without lifting the spotlight off her achievement.

Source: © Copyright Americana Music Appreciation

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Bonnie Raitt says she’s ‘been so deeply moved’ by outpouring love after major Grammys win
After winning song of the year, the singer thanked those who have shared their stories and experience with organ donation.

on February 11, 2023 No comments

By Liz Calvario

The 2023 Grammy Awards was a night to remember for Bonnie Raitt.

The singer-songwriter won song of the year for “Just Like That,” surprising audiences and even herself. Raitt, 73 — who was up against artists like Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Beyoncé — was visibly shocked to hear her name being announced during the Feb. 5 telecast.

Her win touched many people’s hearts including those who related to the song’s lyrics, which were inspired by a true story about an organ donor.

Bonnie Raitt is shocked to learn she won song of the year Grammy: ‘Are you serious?’

“I’m just totally humbled. I really appreciate it,” she told the audience.

www.today.com

In a Feb. 10 message posted on her website, Raitt began by sharing how she wanted to respond to “the incredible outpouring of messages that have come in” since her big win.

Read Raitt’s full letter below:

I wanted to respond to the incredible outpouring of messages that have come in since my song, “Just Like That,” won the Grammy award last Sunday night for Song of the Year.

I’ve been so deeply moved, often to tears, reading the personal stories of hundreds of you, some of whom have had no familiarity with me or my music before I won that Grammy and were curious why this song had won. After listening, many of you wrote that you were moved to tears, even inspired to share your own heart-wrenching stories of either having your loved one’s life saved by an organ donation, or having decided at the height of the terrible shock and loss of losing a beloved, that you would donate their organs so that others could live.

These stories and your responses to my song have moved me as much as anything I can remember and I want to thank you so much for this gift. So many messages from nurses and doctors in the field involved with transplants as well as people who were tragically not able to get an organ in time to save their loved one’s life. There are messages from the family members of people who wanted their organs to be donated, but are now living with the guilt when that wish, for whatever reason, was not able to be fulfilled.. These stories run the gamut and I’m just blown open by the vulnerability and power of each of them.

I am so honored that my song and the original news story that inspired it, are eliciting such a deep emotional response for so many. The story behind the song is this: A few years ago I saw a segment on the evening TV news where they followed a woman who was meeting the man who had received her son’s heart for the first time. It was very emotional, but when he invited her to put her head on his chest and listen to her son’s heart, I just lost it. I knew after it stayed with me for weeks, that I wanted to write my own story, inspired so much by John Prine’s music and his beautiful “Angel From Montgomery,” which I’ve sung every show since hearing it in the early 70’s. I wrote about a fictional woman, Olivia Zand, torn by grief and guilt at the loss of her young son, who finds redemption and grace through the loving act of another.

May the song bring about even more awareness and motivation for more of us to support organ donation registration and infrastructure — removing obstacles that have hindered helping thousands connecting to facilitate this miraculous gift of life and help bring comfort to those suffering such tragic loss. I’ve included a link here to organdonor.gov to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor in an effort to more directly connect to and support the 104,085 men, women, and children currently on the national transplant waiting list.

Thank you all so much again for your incredible responses and sharing your beautiful stories. More than any award, fame or commercial success, knowing what my song means to so many may be the greatest gift of all.

Blessings to you,
Bonnie

Bonnie Raitt’s song of the year spotlights organ donation. Too often, we waste that gift.

Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning song was inspired by a life saved by an organ donor. But 20% of organs from selfless donors are not transplanted.

About The Author

Liz Calvario

Liz Calvario is a Los Angeles-based reporter and editor for TODAY.com who covers entertainment, pop culture and trending news. She enjoys rocking a stylish outfit, a good cup of coffee, traveling and the soulful sounds of the Backstreet Boys.

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