Eighteen years have passed since Bonnie Raitt joined Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, and other musical luminaries at the legendary “No Nukes” concert at Madison Square Garden. And while many of her way-back-when peers who also performed at that show have since suffered artistic or commercial setbacks — see Jackson Browne, Carly Simon, the Doobie Brothers — the red-haired roots-rock diva has demanded that Father Time treat her right.
In what was billed as the largest anti-nuclear concert since then, Raitt and the cause-obsessed Indigo Girls journeyed to the nation’s capital to protest the burial of nuclear waste on Native American land. The crowd was also treated to several surprises — a weathered-looking Browne kicked off the evening with an impromptu, three-song set and pop-folksinger Beth Nielsen Chapman hopped onstage for what seemed like every other song — but the evening’s most satisfying moments came when Raitt curled her whiskey-n-smoke-solid voice around one of her trademark slide-guitar licks.
In a daring, potentially disastrous move, Raitt opened her portion of the show with an a cappella version of Chapman’s new “Color of Roses.” “It’s gonna take a lot of ovaries for me to sing this in front of the woman who wrote it,” Raitt laughed nervously. “But Beth, I love you.” Raitt treated the dirge-like song with solemn respect, conveying more emotion at 48 than she could have at 30.
Honor the Earth Presents No Nukes to Benefit NIRS
A pretty good sounding recording of a great show. The lineup that evening included Jackson Browne, John Trudell, Indigo Girls, Ulali, Beth Nielson Chapman, and Bonnie Raitt. John Trudell guests on a stunning 'Scooter Boys', Amy and Emily join Bonnie Raitt for 'Angel From Montgomery', and the entire group joins together for 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee'. Bonnie Raitt's set is included.
Indigo Girls - Shame On You
Indigo Girls with Ulali - Burn All The Letters
Indigo Girls - Tried To Be True
Indigo Girls - Get Out The Map
Indigo Girls with John Trudell - Scooter Boys
Ulali - Unknown
Indigo Girls with Ulali - Shed Your Skin
Indigo Girls - Galileo
Band Introductions
Indigo Girls - Chickenman
Indigo Girls with Bonnie Raitt & Beth Nielsen Chapman - Closer To Fine
Bonnie Raitt - Dimming Of The Day
Beth Nielsen Chapman & Bonnie Raitt - Sand And Water
Bonnie Raitt - Rainy Day Man
Bonnie Raitt - Write Me A Few Of Your Lines - Walkin' Blues
Bonnie Raitt - Thing Called Love
Bonnie Raitt with Indigo Girls - Angel From Montgomery
Bonnie Raitt-Indigo Girls-Jackson Browne-Ulali-John Trudell-Beth Nielsen Chapman - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
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As the crowd erupted — some even stood for a shrieking ovation — Raitt invited her three-man backing band (drums, bass, piano) onstage, strapped on a guitar, and ripped into the old Aretha Franklin standard, “Baby I Love You.” If that wasn’t steamy enough, she followed it with a slowed-down bump-and-grind version of “The Road’s My Middle Name.” “Ooh, this is getting sooo slinky,” Raitt purred during her solo, directing her power poses and double entendres at husband Michael O’Keefe. She later tore into Robert Johnson’s “Walkin’ Blues,” then slipped casually into the obligatory “Thing Called Love.” For an encore, Raitt invited the Indigo Girls, Chapman, and Native American singing group Ulali onstage to join her on “Angel From Montgomery” and the Buffy Sainte-Marie classic “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”
Wednesday’s “No Nukes” concert at the Warner Theatre was the perfect thing to irk Gingrich Republicans: a bunch of unapologetic liberals having a good time being, well, liberals.
The evening went off like a thoroughly politicized version of a musical-variety show, with sets by the artists — John Trudell, Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt, with a surprise appearance by Jackson Browne — interspersed with activists and politicians including Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.), speaking in favor of the evening’s cause, barring nuclear waste dumps on Native American lands in the West.
Trudell, an activist turned musician, was by far the most strident, mixing poetry set to the tune of Indian chants by Milton “Quilt” Sahme with somewhat woolly-minded political diatribes (“the whole concept of freedom is just heroin for your consciousness”).
After Browne’s three-song appearance, featuring slide guitar and vocal help from Bonnie Raitt on “World in Motion,” Indigo Girls turned in a hard-edged set, marked by singer Amy Ray’s hyperkinetic stage presence. The Native American vocal trio Ulali provided a passionate accompaniment to “Shed Your Skin”; the set-closing “Closer to Fine” provided a contrasting dose of good-natured musical sloppiness.
Raitt offered easily the best singing of the night; her voice is a rare combination of husky aggression (as in her cover of John Hiatt’s “Thing Called Love”) and choir-girl clarity (Richard Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day”). Much of Raitt’s set consisted of quieter, almost hushed ballads like Beth Nielsen-Chapman’s “Color of Roses,” but plenty of kick remained in numbers like her twitchy, ska-flavored take on “Come to Me” and the show-closing cover of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.”
Honor The Earth press conference – Washington, D.C. Sept.24, 1997
Press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
Honor The Earth
Honor the Earth was established by Winona LaDuke and Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, in 1993. In our 20+ years of operation, we have re-granted over two million dollars to over 200 Native American communities. Our mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities.
In memory of John Trudell
John Trudell (February 15, 1946 – December 8, 2015) was a Native American author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist. He was the spokesperson for the United Indians of All Tribes’ takeover of Alcatraz beginning in 1969, broadcasting as Radio Free Alcatraz. During most of the 1970s, he served as the chairman of the American Indian Movement, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Read More
en.wikipedia.org
Winona LaDuke - Honor The Earth
Bonnie Raitt - Musician - No Nukes Activist
Harvey Wasserman - Greenpeace
Harry Reid - Senator, D-Nev
Richard Bryan - Senator, D-Nev
Amy Ray - Indigo Girl - Activist
Dedee Sanchez - Citizen Alert Native American Program
Emily Saliers - Indigo Girl - Activist
John Trudell - Native American poet, musician and activist
Jackson Browne - Musician - No Nukes Activist
Diane D'Arrigo - Nuclear Information Resource Service (NIRS)
Winona LaDuke - Honor The Earth
tip: most convenient way to listen while browsing along is to use the popup button of the player.
Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. 24 Sept. 1997
Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. 24 Sept. 1997
Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. 24 Sept. 1997
Jackson Browne, middle, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, right, and Winona LaDuke of the Seventh Generation Fund after a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. Sept.24, 1997
NUCLEAR WASTE–Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., thanks performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt for appearing at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Indigo Girls and Nevada Democratic Sen. Richard Bryan also attended. 9/24/1997
Performing artist Jackson Browne makes a statement at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind him is a mock nuclear waste cask. Performing artist Bonnie Raitt is at right. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. Sept.24, 1997
In September of 1997, congressman Doggett joined Bonnie Raitt in Washington and in Austin to speak out against legislation that would dump nuclear waste from other states into a poor community in Texas.
Virginia Sanchez, right, of Honor the Earth, sponsor of a 21-concert tour of the Indigo Girls, and Indigo Girl Amy Ray at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. 24 Sept. 1997
Native American poet and performing artist John Trudell makes a statement at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. 24 Sept. 1997
Emily Saliers of the music group Indigo Girls and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., at a press conference on the west terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid also attended. 24 Sept. 1997
Performing artist Bonnie Raitt, right, motions toward Harvey Wasserman of Greenpeace, left, as performing artist Jackson Browne looks on at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Also attending were Nevada Democrat Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan. Sept.24, 1997
Harvey Wasserman of Greenpeace, middle, and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Dianne D’Arrigo, of the Nuclear Information Resource Service, performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, and Winona LaDuke, of the Seventh Generation Fund, at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997
Left to right: Harvey Wasserman, of Greenpeace, performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, Winona LaDuke, of the Seventh Generation Fund, Native American poet and performing artist John Trudell, Amy Ray, of the music group “Indigo Girls,” and Virginia Sanchez, of Honor the Earth, sponsor of the Indigo Girls’ fundraising tour, at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. From left are Diane D’Arrigo (partially obscured), of the Nuclear Information Resource Service, Harvey Wasserman, of Greenpeace, and performing artists Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997
Performing artist Bonnie Raitt, right, at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997, which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. From left are Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Diane D’Arrigo, of the Nuclear Information Resource Service, Harvey Wasserman, of Greenpeace, and performing artist Jackson Browne. Behind them is a mock nuclear waste cask. Sept.24, 1997
Left to right: Virginia Sanchez of Honor the Earth, sponsor of the Indigo Girls 21-concert tour, performing artist Jackson Browne, Winona LaDuke of the Seventh Generation Fund, Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, Native American poet and performing artist John Trudell and performing artist Bonnie Raitt pose for pictures in front of a mock nuclear waste cask. The group appeared at a press conference on the West Terrace of the Capitol in opposition to H.R. 1270, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997. which would allow for the transfer of radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Nevada Democratic Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan also attended. Sept.24, 1997
Honor the Earth Presents No Nukes to Benefit NIRS – with Emily Saliers and Sara Lee (Indigo Girls), Bonnie Raitt, Ulali, Jerry Marotta (Indigo Girls) – Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C. – September 24, 1997
Bonnie Raitt The Warner Walk of Fame at the Warner Theatre Washington DC, USA – No Nukes Sept.24 & 25, 1997
Susan Campbell, Bonnie Raitt, Michael O’Keefe, Terence Winch; backstage at the Warner Theatre, Wash.DC. Sept.1997
White Earth Land Recovery Project
Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi band of Ashinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Indian Reservation and is the mother of three children. Winona founded the White Earth Land Recovery Project in 1989 and served as its executive director for 25 years. She is currently the executive director of Honor the Earth, where she works on a national level to advocate, raise public support, and create funding for frontline Native environmental groups. In 1994, Winona was nominated by Time Magazine as one of America’s fifty most promising leaders under forty years of age. She was awarded The Thomas Merton Award in 1996, The Biha Community Service Award in 1997, The Ann Bancroft Award for Women’s Leadership Fellowship, and The Reebok Human Rights Award (which she used to begin the White Earth Land Recovery Project).
Harvey Wasserman – Wikipedia
Harvey Franklin Wasserman (born December 31, 1945) is an American journalist, author, democracy activist, and advocate for renewable energy. He has been a strategist and organizer in the anti-nuclear movement in the United States for over 30 years. He has been a featured speaker on Today, Nightline, National Public Radio, CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight and other major media outlets. Wasserman is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an investigative reporter, and senior editor of The Columbus Free Press where his coverage, with Bob Fitrakis, has prompted Rev. Jesse Jackson to call them “the Woodward and Bernstein of the 2004 election.”
Harry Reid – Wikipedia
Harry Mason Reid born December 2, 1939) is a retired American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015.
Richard Bryan – Wikipedia
Richard Hudson Bryan (born July 16, 1937) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States Senator from Nevada from 1989 to 2001. A Democrat, Bryan served as the 25th Governor of Nevada from 1983 to 1989, and before that served as the state’s attorney general and a member of the State Senate.
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository – Wikipedia
The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository, as designated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act amendments of 1987, is a proposed deep geological repository storage facility within Yucca Mountain for spent nuclear fuel and other high-level radioactive waste in the United States. The site is on federal land adjacent to the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada, about 80 mi (130 km) northwest of the Las Vegas Valley.
Help Stop the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 (H.R. 3053)! · NIRS
Contact your US Representatives and tell them to vote NO on a nuclear waste bill being rushed through Congress—one of the most dangerous we have seen. U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) bill H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, threatens nearly every state with decades of nuclear w…
Bonnie Raitt in a movie with Middle America itself, John Travolta? Wait a minute. Is this the same Bonnie Raitt who is known as a political radical as well as a singer?
“I’m actually starting to take on some projects that I wouldn’t have considered a few years ago, because I have some things to do that unless I get the money I just can’t do, ” said former Cambridge resident Raitt, as she sipped a bloody mary last week in a Boston hotel.
Now a month shy of her 30th birthday, Raitt, who performs at Worcester Auditorium next Monday and the Music Hall next Wednesday nights, is making a fresh evaluation of her career. She has never viewed success as the end-all of existence, but now she realizes that more of it can cut the excessive time she needs to tour. She has traditionally made more money from touring than from record sales, but she is hoping that will change.
“I don’t want to be schlepping around touring all the time,” she says. “Although I still like it, I’ve got other things to do.” These include her continued politicking against nuclear power, her ability to finance a film on blues shouter Sippie Wallace, and her desire to produce records by other women (she just produced a demo tape by Toronto singer Joanne Mackell), especially politically aware women.
Appearing in the Travolta film, then, is a compromise but not a sellout, Raitt stresses. Called “Urban Cowboy,” it was shot recently in Texas. Bonnie played a country singer who sings a couple of tunes- Dave Rogers’ “Darlin’” and Rusty Weir’s “Don’t It Make You Wanna Dance?” As she explains: “We went and did it at Mickey Gilley’s club in Houston, which is the biggest honky-tonk club in the world – there’s even electric bull-riding there. The movie is about John Travolta coming in from the country. It came about after an article by Aaron Latham in Esquire, kind of like that Nik Cohn story in New York magazine that became ‘Saturday Night Fever.’”
Sales from the soundtrack album to the movie – which should be out either by Christmas or early next year – will help underwrite the Sippie Wallace film, according to Raitt’s plan.
“Jane Fonda is a role model to me, ” Bonnie says. “She takes on certain projects in order to make money. I mean, she’s got this workout/exercise salon that she just opened in Los Angeles precisely to fund the Campaign for Economic Democracy. I think with an artistic reason you can do things like that, although I wouldn’t do a Prell commercial or anything like that.”
The film about Wallace, the 81-year- old Detroit blueswoman who has had a profound influence on Raitt’s own singing, is being directed by award-winning Cambridge filmmaker, Midge McKenzie, whose series on women’s suffrage, ”Shoulder to Shoulder,” has been shown on PBS stations.
The Wallace film is underway, but has been left hanging. “We shot three days in Baton Rouge at a place called the Kingfish when Muddy Waters and I toured through the Southwest a few years ago, ” says Bonnie. “Now it’s going to take several hundred thousand dollars to finish it. We’re aiming for a feature-length film that will be shown in houses like the Orson Welles Cinema. Then we’ll eventually cut it down and show it on PBS or in Europe. But unless I’m more famous we can’t get any funding. “Raitt’s pragmatic success-is-a- means-to-an-end philosophy is unusual enough in this era of the self-indulgent rock star, but so are some of her other values. For one, she doesn’t believe in working for the major rock promoters in cities along her tours. The exception is San Francisco’s Bill Graham, who has become a personal friend. But elsewhere she prefers the underdog. In Boston, for instance, she won’t work with the region’s magnate, Don Law.
“I think people shouldn’t have monopolies on towns,” she says. “I don’t agree with it. It’s against my political feelings and my belief in economic democracy. I think there ought to be lots of small little neighborhood stores and little colleges and lots of little bands and little record labels. I just don’t like the ‘big-is-better’ idea. I don’t like monopolies or cartels of any kind. And even though I’m on Warner Brothers Records, that’s still a means to an end.”
In another unusual belief – considering she is a recording artist – she praises buyers who stayed out of the stores this summer to protest the skyrocketing price of albums. “I think it’s great that the music business has to pull back on what they’re spending because kids are revolting and not buying records. Also, I’m impressed by the fact that blank-tape stock is zooming because everybody has cassette players. I wondered why people weren’t hip enough to do that for years. Yet I know that’s biting the hand that feeds me. Here I am encouraging people to do that and congratulating them for rebelling against high prices and consumerism.” As the daughter of Broadway singer John Raitt, Bonnie was far from poor as a child, yet she quickly learned to spot and rebel against the shallowness of material things. She grew up around Los Angeles and recalls that “in my father’s business if you didn’t drive a Cadillac you were not doing well. My father loved to drive around in a Jeep and wear a funky hat and cutoffs, but my mother would have to remind him when he was going into Beverly Hills to take the Cadillac, because you’re only as hot as people think you are.”
During Bonnie’s “punk-beatnik” period, she came east to attend Radcliffe. “I almost went to Pembroke but I was too fruity. And I wanted to be at the scene of the action in Cambridge. “She eventually dropped out of Radcliffe, but she stayed in Cambridge a total of six years, 1967- 1973, playing in local clubs and learning and refining the blues.
“I lived on Oxford street opposite Porter Square, right where Somerville avenue and Beacon street come together. I had lived on Eustis street and then I moved up about three blocks. Chris Smither used to live on Garfield street, and we’d spend all our afternoons playing guitar together.” Smither, who still lives in Cambridge, opened for Raitt during a warmup show last week at Fitchburg State College. “It was great seeing him. He’s really good, and hopefully he’ll be making a record soon.”
Raitt, who first earned money in Cambridge as a housemaid, ended up becoming a popular performer in the bar scene, notably in Jack’s on Mass. avenue. She also acquired quite a reputation as a carouser. An old Globe feature article once quoted this consensus advice from her peers: “Don’t go boozing with Bonnie unless you have three days to recuperate.”
“Oh yeah, ” says Bonnie sheepishly, as she still nurses her bloody mary. “That’s when (Spider John) Koerner used to play Jack’s bar on Monday nights, and Reeve Little played at the Casablanca. So if you closed one bar, then you’d hop over to another. Then you’d go to somebody’s house and play music with Peter Bell or Peter Johnson or Paul Geremia or whoever, until all hours.”
Not surprisingly, Bonnie has slowed down since then. “Oh, I still like to party,” she qualifies. “It’s just a question of being responsible. When you have to play an hour and a half a night and it’s a really hard rock show, then it’s exhausting. It’s not like there are other people in the band who can take a vocal,like Fleetwood Mac. I’ve got to do the whole thing. And I will be 30 next month. Most of my friends have pulled back quite a bit. Lowell George’s (of Little Feat) death was something that hit all of us in terms of realizing that in fact that stuff does catch up to you if you don’t watch it. “Having outgrown the Cambridge bar scene and needing a change, Raitt moved back to Los Angeles in 1973. “So now I live in a house that’s gray with little white-paned windows. It looks like Connecticut or something, but it’s in the middle of LA with palm trees all around it. I guess I’m still trying to blend the East and West coasts.”
Abalone Alliance Rally – San Luis Obispo, CA
Bonnie Raitt concentrates on her song, which drew a standing ovation. It was San Luis Obispo County’s Woodstock only with less mud, sex, drugs or rock and roll but more politics. They estimated 20,000 would attend. Over 30,000 people jammed Highway 1 for..
As her career has expanded, so has her concern for the environment and her determination to fight nuclear power. She and Jackson Browne have led the anti-nuke crusade among contemporary musicians, and she participated in last month’s landmark New York benefit concerts sponsored by MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy).The five concerts, also featuring James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen and others, netted about $500,000 for the anti-nuke cause. Raitt has since been busy helping to ready a live album from the proceedings (due by Christmas) and a documentary film.
As for future MUSE concerts, she says: “Donna Summer, Robin Williams, Aerosmith, the Cars, Blondie, John Denver and the Eagles are interested. And the Grateful Dead and the Starship will probably be doing one at Oakland Coliseum. We also want to do some nights at the Universal Amphitheater- an outdoor theater in LA about five minutes from where I live – and I’d like to see a two-day folk festival both in LA and San Francisco, with some traditional blues acts and bluegrass groups, then headliners at night. That would be with a combination energy fair. And I’d like to get the jazz concerts in Montreux, Switzerland to donate one night to MUSE.”
Raitt has been following anti-nuke developments around the country, including the controversy surrounding the Seabrook, N.H., power plant construction. However, she withholds judgment at the moment as to whether she approves of the recent attempts by protesters to forcibly occupy the Seabrook site. “I haven’t made up my mind yet on that. I don’t know. I just don’t have a public statement on that right now. ” As we near the end of our talk in the hotel, Raitt asks if she can hitch a ride over to Harvard Square, where she is to meet Midge McKenzie and talk about the Sippie Wallace film project. Almost as an afterthought, as we jaywalk across the road ( “I love it!” – she shrieks – “in LA when you make the cars stop it’s a political act . . . “), she brings up her new record, “The Glow. ” Needing to promote a new record, theoretically, is the reason many artists grant interviews in the first place. But not Bonnie, who is embarrassed about blowing her own horn.
The new record was produced by Peter Asher, the first one he’s done for Bonnie after an impressive track record with Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. But before settling on Asher, Bonnie had also considered Jon Landau – Springsteen’s producer – for the job. ”Those were the two people in my mind that I thought had the best chance of blending the direction I wanted to go in, which was a harder rock type of direction with more spontaneity and less overdubs.”
Raitt recorded her vocals live on the first or second take. Asked whether she feared that Asher, known for his smooth style, might streamline her vaunted rawness, she says, “No, I think the rawness is actually back in there. It sounds closer to what I sound like live, and everybody has told me – and I happen to believe it myself – that my live performances outshine the recorded versions of my songs.”
The single from the album will be her jaunty cover of Robert Palmer’s tune, “You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming.” Just how important is a hit single at this point?
Turning serious – for she once said years ago she never wanted a hit single – Bonnie adds almost apologetically that “I’m stuck at 350,000 album sales each time out. To break beyond that, because there’s so much new product coming out, you have to have a hit single to sell more albums.”
She gets more to the point when she says that “I would like to be doing two benefits for every five gigs, but I just can’t. I can’t do what I want to do with the level I’m at. I can’t do it without a hit record.”
That said – and the self-promotion out of the way – Bonnie pauses to look out the window as we putter along in my car. We pass the Charles River, along which she jogged the day before. “I like to jog at dusk when I have the time,” she says.
Then as we approach Harvard Square, Bonnie peeks out at the brick architecture and at the people buzzing every which way on this warm autumn afternoon.
“Gee, this is so neat,” she says in a childlike voice. “I wish I lived here again.”
About The Author
Steve Morse
Globe Staff
Steve Morse was a staff music critic at The Boston Globe for nearly 30 years. He now teaches an online course in rock history at the Berklee College of Music. He also has contributed to Billboard and Rolling Stone.
The times, they have a-changed. Protest concerts used to mean a long march, standing in front of a government building, singing along with Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez as they strummed acoustic guitars and sang against racism and war.
Those were the days. These days, however, you pay $12.50 to benefit organizations fighting against nuclear power and sit in a theater listening to pop stars like Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt sing love songs.
A sellout crowd of 2.600 persons turned out Thursday night at the first of two benefit concerts at the St. Paul Civic Center Theater (the second show was reportedly sold out, too). It wasn’t difficult to figure out why most of the people showed up.
They didn’t come to hear John Trudell, president of the American Indian Movement, rail eloquently about “nuclear madness” and the “oppressor man.” They came to hear Browne, Raitt and Jesse Colin Young play their California “mellow-music” in an intimate setting. After all, this was a rare opportunity.
The three-hour program opened with a moment of silence for “sky father, earth mother and all brothers and sisters.” The solitude was brief, however, as a few cat-callers urged “on with the show.”
It wasn’t difficult to read the mood of the audience. The smell of marijuana smoke was in the air, there were chants for “boogie” and the queue at the beer stand was considerably longer than the gathering at the no-nuke, pro-solar concession booth. Anyway, most of the souvenir buyers seemed to favor the Jackson Browne T-shirts over the ones emblazoned with “Question Authority,” “No Nukes” and “People Before Profits.”
The free literature discussing such topics as “nuclear power and your electric bill” and “how the power line affects you” was largely’ unsampled by the concertgoers. They probably had no idea their ticket monies were going to the Black Hills Alliance, General Assembly to Stop the Powerline, Badger Safe Energy Alliance and other organizations that campaign against various aspects of energy technology.
For most of these well-scrubbed, clean-cut, young people, it was, quite frankly, just another concert with a slightly different twist. Ticket prices were higher than usual, but there were four established performers and they were appearing without their usual electric guitars and full-band accompaniment.
They had waived their performance fees and usual concert accoutrements. The musicians wore faded jeans and T-shirts from the concession stands, rather than their usual flashier stage duds. They used lyric sheets on a couple of songs and one singer even botched the words on one of his own numbers.
It was a casual atmosphere that provided some refreshing music and a great showcase for the songs themselves, rather than heavily orchestrated performances. In many ways, it seemed like a throwback to the singers’ first appearances here years ago when they were struggling soloists.
Danny O’Keefe, the singer-songwriter from Washington state who attended high school in St. Paul, opened with a thoughtful albeit largely apolitical set. For his last number, Raitt joined in on electric slide guitar.
“I want to thank you,” O’Keefe told the crowd before he paused for a brief Raitt solo, “Stop the nukes.” Then Raitt revved up again. “And help the Indians.”
Young, California’s answer to John Denver, followed with his mellow-music visions of Indian life before the white men. Without the customary jazzy accompaniment, Young’s songs seemed self-consciously meaningful; the lyrics often came off as trite and the selections as inartistic.
However, Young redeemed his performance with the inevitable ’’Come Together,” his anthem of the late 1960s, for which Browne made his first appearance. The teen-aged girls in the audience screamed when the popular singer joined in, yet the outbursts seemed more for adoration than the sentiment of the song.
Raitt returned for her own set with her bass player, Freebo, but she somehow forgot that it was supposed to be an acoustic performance. With all due disrespect to nuclear power, Raitt plugged in her guitar and offered an uplifting reworking of Chris Smithers’ “Love Me Like a Man.” “The music is for men and women,” she explained in her introduction, “and the words are for the bastards at the power companies.”
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Musical excerpts from the “No More Nukes” documentary featuring Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Norton Buffalo, Joan Baez, Mimi Farina. This was an anti-nuclear protest rally at the San Francisco Civic Center on April 7, 1979 after the Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident in Pennsylvania. Produced and directed by David Ludwig. For the complete documentary, see here.
Raitt, who has been a local favorite for the past seven years, played some blues songs and then Browne joined her for “Under the Falling Sky,” which she dedicated to the “American government who sent up Skylab.” It was a moving performance, marked by the rare spontaneity of a late night jam at a funky coffeehouse.
Then, it was time for the singer over whom the young girls were swooning. Browne, accompanied by guitarist-violinist David Lindley, sang his elliptical visions of the apocalypse and “The Crow on the Cradle,” an anti-nuke song from the 1960s. Yet, he did not perform his breakthrough hit, “Running on Empty,” which is about cruising, not conservation.
All the performers then returned for “Willin’,” a tribute to the redoubtable guitarist Lowell George, who died last week, and John Hall’s “Power,” which has become the theme song of this ad hoc no-nuke troupe that has scheduled several benefits this summer.
“Power,” a bland pop ditty, does not seem destined to become the 1980s’ answer to “We Shall Overcome” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.” The concertgoers did not sing along with the kind of fervor that might indicate many of them would follow the anti-nuke troupe to Rapid City, S.D., this weekend for a major demonstration against uranium mining in the Black Hills.
Anyway, who ever heard of a protest concert going on the road? Do caravans of sympathizers follow the troupe hoping to score tickets? Are there actually no-nuke groupies?
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.
Bonnie has contributed a new recording of "Prison Bound Blues" written by Leroy Carr to a project called Better Than Jail, an extraordinary new album benefiting Free Hearts and Equal Justice USA. Better Than Jail is available everywhere today and features covers of iconic prison songs from Steve Earle, Taj Mahal,Margo Price, The War and Treaty and many more. The album seeks to raise awareness and support for the urgent need to reduce the harm of the criminal justice system. https://found.ee/BetterThanJail.
I'm so proud to have joined in with so many illustrious artists in creating this very special album in support of rural prison reform. Overlooked for far too long, this issue cuts across all cultural and political divides and deserves all our focused attention to finally bring about some swift and meaningful action. Better Than Jail is one of the most inspired and heartfelt albums I've been blessed to be a part of and I hope it sets a fire in hearts far and wide to join in our efforts." ~ Bonnie Raitt
Released on: 2024-10-04 Executive Producer: Brian Hunt Producer: Kenny Greenberg Producer: Wally Wilson Producer: Bonnie Raitt Recording Engineer: Jason Lehning at Sound Emporium Mastering Engineer: Alex McCollough at True East Mastering Production Assistant: Shannon Finnegan Mixer: Justin Niebank at Hounds Ear Music Publisher: Universal Music Corp. Composer, Lyricist: Leroy Carr ℗ Believe Entertainment Group and Wyatt Road Records
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The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Nothing in Rambling Ft. Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo' & Mick Fleetwood
In celebration of the band’s 50th Anniversary, The Fabulous Thunderbirds have just released Struck Down, their first studio album in eight years on Stony Plain Records. The ten-track album includes a wonderful cover of Memphis Minnie’s “Nothing in Rambling,” featuring longtime friends, T-Birds founding member Kim Wilson, along with Bonnie, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal and Mick Fleetwood. — BRHQ
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Little Feat - Long Distance Call
“I’ve always loved Little Feat and this new incarnation of the band is bringing some serious heat, cred and new blood to their enduring legacy. Every Feat fan loves us some Sam. I’m so glad he’s now gotten a chance to step out front and center and put his spin on these wonderful blues songs. I loved singing "Long Distance Call" with him, always one of my favorites, and Scott slayed on slide. Know you’ll enjoy hanging out with us at Sam’s Place!" -- Bonnie Raitt
“Long Distance Call” was written by blues legend, Muddy Waters. It has Sam Clayton and Bonnie Raitt on vocals, Scott Sharrard on Dobro, Fred Tackett on acoustic guitar, Tony Leone on drums, and Michael “The Bull” LoBue on harmonica. The album also features Bill Payne on piano and Kenny Gradney on bass.
Little Feat have composed an album that’s their love letter to the blues entitled, ‘Sam’s Place.’ “Long Distance Call” plus many other blues classics are on this album. You can stream and order ‘Sam’s Place’ here: https://orcd.co/samsplace
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
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Arhoolie Foundation celebrates it's 60th anniversary (1960-2020) with an online broadcast.
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