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Bonnie Raitt

In the late '60s, restless in Los Angeles, Bonnie moved east to Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a Harvard/Radcliffe student majoring in Social Relations and African Studies, she attended classes and immersed herself in the city's turbulent cultural and political activities. "I couldn't wait to get back to where there were folkies and the antiwar and civil rights movements," she says. "There were so many great music and political scenes going on in the late '60s in Cambridge." Also, she adds, with a laugh, "the ratio of guys to girls at Harvard was four to one, so all of those things were playing in my mind."

Raitt was already deeply involved with folk music and the blues at that time. Exposure to the album Blues at Newport 1963 at age 14 had kindled her interest in blues and slide guitar, and between classes at Harvard she explored these and other styles in local coffeehouse gigs. Three years after entering college, Bonnie left to commit herself full-time to music, and shortly afterward found herself opening for surviving giants of the blues. From Mississippi Fred McDowell, Sippie Wallace, Son House, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker she learned first-hand lessons of life as well as invaluable techniques of performance.

"I'm certain that it was an incredible gift for me to not only be friends with some of the greatest blues people who've ever lived, but to learn how they played, how they sang, how they lived their lives, ran their marriages, and talked to their kids," she says. "I was especially lucky as so many of them are no longer with us."

Word spread quickly of the young redhaired blueswoman, her soulful, unaffected way of singing, and her uncanny insights into blues guitar. Warner Bros. tracked her down, signed her up, and in 1971 released her debut album, Bonnie Raitt. Her interpretations of classic blues by Robert Johnson and Sippie Wallace made a powerful critical impression, but the presence of intriguing tunes by contemporary songwriters, as well as several examples of her own writing, indicated that this artist would not be restricted to any one pigeonhole or style.

Over the next seven years she would record six albums. Give It Up, Takin' My Time, Streetlights, and Home Plate were followed in 1977 by Sweet Forgiveness, which featured her first hit single, a gritty Memphis/R&B arrangement of Del Shannon's Runaway. Three Grammy nominations followed in the 1980s, as she released The Glow, Green Light, and Nine Lives. A compilation of highlights from these Warner Bros. albums (plus two previously unreleased live duets) was released as The Bonnie Raitt Collection in 1990. All of these Warners albums have recently been digitally remastered and re-released.

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226

Award / Grant

2010 Blues Hall of Fame Inductees

2010 Blues Hall of Fame Inductees

Source: All About Jazz

The Blues Foundation has announced the artists that it will be inducting into its Hall of Fame this year, and they've really done a great job with their choices--much better, in my humble estimation, than the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation has done lately with their inductions.

Chaired by publisher Jim O'Neal, founding editor of Living Blues magazine, the Hall of Fame committee is comprised of blues scholars, historians, record producers, and radio programmers. The Blues Hall of ...

197

Performance / Tour

Bontaj Roulet: Bonnie Raitt & Taj Mahal @ Berkeley Greek

Bontaj Roulet: Bonnie Raitt & Taj Mahal @ Berkeley Greek

Source: All About Jazz

This summer, “Alone & Together", Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal two leading lights of modern blues are joining forces for their first-ever tour together.

The “BonTaj Roulet" tour a coast-to-coast, 30-date outing in August and Friday September 11th at the University of California Berkeley Greek Theater.

The show will feature Bonnie and Taj on stage alone and together. Bonnie, backed by her always-dazzling group, and Taj, with the six-piece, Grammy-winning Phantom Blues Band, will play full sets separately, ...

263

Performance / Tour

Seattle Music Scene

Seattle Music Scene

Source: All About Jazz

Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal Date/Time:Sun., September 6, 7:00pm Price: $49.75 GA, $79.75 reserved Chateau Ste. Michelle 14111 N.E. 145th St. Woodinville, WA

Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt has been palling around with Harlem-bred bluesman Taj Mahal since the '60s, bonding through a mutual love of roots music.

But this is the pairs first tour together; they'll be co-headlining under the name BonTaj ...

246

Obituary

Bonnie Raitt and Friends Remember Guitarist Stephen Bruton

Bonnie Raitt and Friends Remember Guitarist Stephen Bruton

Source: Michael Ricci

I've been crying all day and never thought I'd get through this show, Bonnie Raitt told an Austin audience Sunday night at the end of her Mothers Day performance.

She was talking about the impact on her of the death on Saturday of Texas guitarist-songwriter-producer-actor Stephen Bruton, who'd once been a member of her band and who had been her friend for nearly four decades.

She told the audience that during Brutons tenure with her, she'd often avoid making eye ...

185

Performance / Tour

Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal to Team for 'Bontaj' Tour

Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal to Team for 'Bontaj' Tour

Source: Billboard Magazine

If Bonnie Raitt has her way, this summer's BonTaj Roulet tour with Taj Mahal will be the first of many such outings. “I trademarked BonTaj Roulet," Raitt tells Billboard.com. “I had the idea for this back when I did Lilith Fair, the whole idea of a touring mini-festival and ticket prices going to social causes. It's not only the beginning of what I hope will be many years of BonTaj, but a franchise I'd like to see grow to where ...

259

Performance / Tour

Bonnie Raitt &Taj Mahal Tour

Bonnie Raitt &Taj Mahal Tour

Source: JamBase

BONTAJ ROULET: BONNIE RAITT & TAJ MAHAL ALONE AND TOGETHER U.S. Tour set for August and September

Bonnie Raitt Taj Mahal This summer, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal - two leading lights of modern blues - are joining forces for their first-ever tour together. The “BonTaj Roulet" tour will be a coast-to-coast, 30-date outing in August and September. These shows will feature Bonnie and Taj on stage alone and together. Bonnie, backed by her always-dazzling group, and Taj, ...

350

Performance / Tour

Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal Team up for BonTaj Roulet

Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal Team up for BonTaj Roulet

Source: All About Jazz

This summer, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal-two leading lights of modern blues-are joining forces for their first-ever tour together.

The “BonTaj Roulet" tour will be a coast-to-coast, 30-date outing in August and September, including appearances at such celebrated venues as Wolf Trap, Ravinia, Red Rocks, and the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.

These shows will feature Bonnie and Taj on stage alone and together. Bonnie, backed by her always-dazzling group, and Taj, with the six-piece, Grammy-winning Phantom Blues Band, will ...

170

Performance / Tour

Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt Team for BonTaj Roulet Tour

Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt Team for BonTaj Roulet Tour

Source: All About Jazz

Blues artist Taj Mahal will do his own set and then finish off with a collaboration with Bonnie Raitt on their tour.

Friends since the late '60s, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal are teaming up for BonTaj Roulet, a 30-date tour from Aug. 6 to Sept. 25. Each show includes separate sets and a closing collaboration. Their first joint outing is long overdue, says Raitt, who opened for Mahal at Skidmore College in the early '70s. He co-produced her third ...

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