Bonnie Raitt is 65 years old today. A blues singer-songwriter and slide guitar player, during the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially accessible recordings in the 1990s including Nick of Time,” Something to Talk About,” Love Sneakin Up on You,” and the slow ballad I Cant Make You Love Me.” The daughter of Broadway musical star John Raitt and his first wife, pianist Marjorie Haydock, she began playing guitar at an early age, something few of her high school female friends did. Later she would become famous for her bottleneck-style guitar playing. I had played a little at school and at camp,” she later recalled in a July 2002 interview. The camp Raitt refers to is Camp Regis-Applejack, located on Upper St. Regis Lake in New York. After graduating from Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1967 Raitt entered Harvards Radcliffe College as a freshman, majoring in Social Relations and African Studies. One day, Raitt was told by a friend that blues promoter Dick Waterman was giving an interview at WHRB, Harvards college radio station. An important figure in the blues revival of the 1960s, Waterman was also a Cambridge resident. Raitt went to see Waterman, and the two soon became friends, much to the chagrin of my parents, who didnt expect their freshman daughter to be running around with 65-year-old bluesmen, recalled Raitt. I was amazed by his passion for the music and the integrity with which he managed the musicians. During Raitts sophomore year, Waterman relocated to Philadelphia, and a number of local musicians he counted among his friends went with him. Raitt had become a strong part of that community, recalling that ... these people had become my friends, my mentors, and though I had every intention of graduating, I decided to take the semester off and move to Philadelphia .... It was an opportunity that young white girls just dont get, and as it turns out, an opportunity that changed everything. By now, Raitt was also playing folk and rhythm and blues clubs in the Boston area, performing alongside established blues legends such as Howlin Wolf, Sippie Wallace and Mississippi Fred McDowell, all of whom she met through Waterman. In the fall of 1970, while opening for McDowell at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, she was seen by a reporter from Newsweek Magazine, who began to spread word of her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer with Warner Bros. who soon released her debut album, Bonnie Raitt, in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, many of whom praised her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, very few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists. Here, Raitt performs “Pride and Joy” at a tribute for Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 12:03:14 +0000
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