Bonnie Raitt Lights Up the World

   Bonnie has balanced an astonishing musical
   range with a message and a way of carrying
   herself that are firmly rooted in her Quaker
   heritage.

By Harvey Wasserman
The Rag Blog
September 18, 2012

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/harvey-wasserman-bonnie-raitt-lights-up.html

Adversity can debilitate and defeat a lesser soul. But
for those with the inner strength to make the climb,
new heights can beckon.

Along the way -- especially for a musician -- it helps
to have an other-worldly talent, a gift that combines
decades of hard work with those inexplicable powers
that come from the slipstream of the spirit.

A combination like that can light up the world,
especially at jam-packed concerts that become joyful
communions.

Now on the second leg of an epic U.S. tour -- to be
followed in Asia and Europe -- Bonnie Raitt has
taken it to a new level. Reading through the show-
by-show reviews of her performances is like being
witness to an ecstatic coronation.

Bonnie's well-deserved joyride comes after a long
ordeal of personal loss. Her parents, brother, and a
close friend all passed in scary succession. She has
also set sail with her own Redwing Records label.

None of which have shaken her political convictions
or willingness to act on them (by way of disclosure,
I've worked with Bonnie since 1978 and edit the
website for NukeFree.org, whose core she comprises
with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, and benefit
producer Tom Campbell).

Bonnie's Slipstream has the trappings of an album
made by someone with a transcendent talent doing
exactly what she wants -- and making it work. The
opening song -- with which she opened concerts I
saw in Indianapolis and near Dayton -- is Randall
Bramblett's searing "Used to Rule the World," an
admonition to egos and empires about the
immutable laws of karma:

For all these decades, through a score of albums,
nine Grammys, a slot at the Rock Hall, appearances
with Leno-Letterman-Ellen-Colbert, Bonnie has
balanced an astonishing musical range with a
message and a way of carrying herself that are firmly
rooted in her Quaker heritage. A mainstay of the No
Nukes movement for more than 30 years, she is not
shy.

Last week, while receiving a lifetime achievement
award at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville,
she told a standing-room-only crowd that this year's
election had become an "auction. The efforts that
are going on in our country to actively discourage
people from voting and to put up roadblocks to
people getting registered to vote" are among "the
saddest threats to our democracy to come along in a
long time."

The Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision," she
added, "is one of the worst things that has ever
happened to our democratic process.If you look at
the millions of dollars that are being wasted trying
to buy elections when that money could help so
many people, it makes you really sad."

In many ways Bonnie's newest album is her most
interesting. My own favorite has long been the
double-shot Road Tested, which puts her live and
on stage.

But Slipstream is quirky, challenging, edgy,
brilliant, brimming with confidence, and often just
downright gorgeous. The songs work live and on
stage, especially when mixed with classics like John
Prine's "Angel From Montgomery," which she opened
a capella, and the tear-inducing "I Can't Make You
Love Me."

Bonnie's talent and politics are both family affairs. A
supporter of the legendary Quaker-based sea-faring
opposition to nuclear testing in the Pacific, John
Raitt was one of the great stage performers of his
generation, bringing epic depth and power to
Oklahoma and Carousel, which he took on tour for
decades. Bonnie's mother Marjorie was an
accomplished pianist.

With them came a vital dose of essential good cheer.
Bonnie thanked one audience for coming because
"we're not really suited for any other kind of work."
In the Rock Hall's inductee film, when asked by a
young girl why she took up the guitar, Bonnie
explains it was "to meet boys."

The four in her band include Hutch Hutchison on
bass, George Marinelli on guitar, and Ricky Fatarr
on drums -- all with her forever. New piano man
Mike Finnegan adds some Irish zip... and the
chutzpah to "thank Bonnie for opening for me"
when he takes a solo turn.

Having weathered her storms and grown into her
unique talent, Bonnie is now being greeted by fans
-- at the sold-out Dayton show, one of them was my
neighbor -- turning up in bright red wigs and giant
grins. What they get in exchange is a warm,
unaffected master of spunk and joy, thankful to be
performing, genuinely grateful to be with you. As no
one else can, she brings rock, folk, country, blues,
Broadway, soulful ballads, that amazing slide guitar,
and an evergreen glow of accomplished integrity.

"My dad performed until he was 88," she said at the
end of the Dayton show. Hale, happy, and hearty at
62, Bonnie Raitt's promise of decades more to come
is the best music you'll hear in many a year.
_______________

[Harvey Wasserman edits www.nukefree.org and is
author of Solartopia!: Our Green-Powered Earth. He
is co-author with Bob Fitrakis of Will the GOP Steal
America's 2012 Election? Read more of Harvey
Wasserman's writing on The Rag Blog.]

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