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.
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Bonnie Raitt Remembers B.B. King: He Was a God
Blues guitarist B.B. King passed away Thursday at the age of 89. Here, Bonnie Raitt pays tribute to her friend, collaborator and inspiration. B.B. was a god from the first time we all heard him. You listen to those early recordings with that cry in his voice, even as a young man.
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
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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)
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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
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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
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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.
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
The loss of Glenn Frey is a heartache worth at least two nights. In advance of Monday’s Grammy telecast salute to the Eagles’ co-frontman, the Americana Music Association presented its own tribute to the singer Saturday night at the Troubadour, the “Sad Café” where the original Eagles first found one another roughly 45 years ago.
“This was the place where the s— happened, night after night,” said photographer Henry Diltz, who reminisced about the band’s fateful name change from the Beefeaters to Eagles, along with some desert- and peyote-fueled tales of shooting the group’s first two album covers. Diltz was one of three contemporaries of Frey’s on stage for the tribute, the others being Bonnie Raitt and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” songwriter Jack Tempchin. (Other members of the Frey extended family included manager Irving Azoff, who looked on from the balconies of the one-time country-rock clubhouse.)
Raitt was, not surprisingly, the MVP of the night, dueting with Carlile on “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” contributing a slide guitar solo on “Heartache Tonight,” and taking verses in the show-closing ensemble numbers. The next best thing to hearing Raitt covering the entire Eagles catalog would have been hearing her do a few solo numbers, but her collaborative efforts (as she played well with others) were the next best thing to that.
Blues guitarist B.B. King passed away Thursday at the age of 89. Here, Bonnie Raitt pays tribute to her friend, collaborator and inspiration.
B.B. was a god from the first time we all heard him. You listen to those early recordings with that cry in his voice, even as a young man. I still have the 45 of “Rock Me Baby” that I wore out playing when I was a teenager. I used to sit there and play it and move the needle back to the beginning and play it over and over. It’s so sexy and the groove is hellacious. A lot of people have covered that song, but that’s my favorite version. 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.
The recordings that prove the blues legend was one of the greatest live performers in history
My manager worked with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, and B.B. was Buddy’s hero, so I got to go backstage and see B.B. when he was in and out of blues festivals. He was always very complimentary about my playing. He was always so gentle and humble and appreciative and he got a big kick out of the fact that all us young white kids got him. We became friends and later he would confide in me about his personal life and how he loved the ladies. To watch him backstage flirting with beautiful women was a delight. He loved his fans, but he enjoyed the company of kind and appreciative women. I always wished he’d had a steadfast and steady partner, but he was on the road so much. He could have retired years ago and cut his schedule back, but he told me he stayed on the road to be able to support his band and crew. He had a big band. I always wondered how he could afford it. He just worked all the time.
He was pretty happy, but I always wondered if he was a lonely guy. But I never asked him about that — I didn’t want to invade his space. He must have had some kind of pain in his life, but talk about overcoming whatever hardships he had.
When we recorded “Baby I Love You” [for the 1997 King duets album Deuces Wild], he had just played Dallas the night before and drove all night to get to the studio. He must have had two hours of sleep. But he was still such a champ. He was completely professional and said, “Whatever key you’d like.” He was so classy and so bold at the same time. He was an old-school Southern gentleman, but his playing was razor-sharp. I learned so much about dynamics from him.
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