A refreshed Raitt returns to her roots
‘Slipstream’ comes after a long break
STUDIO CITY, Calif. — Bonnie Raitt had not enjoyed a proper hiatus since her launch on the Boston folk and blues club circuit in the late ’60s. Four decades later, the year-long retreat she allowed herself after 2009’s Bontaj Roulet tour with bluesman Taj Mahal was hardly a dream vacation.
She attended to the estate of her older brother Steve, who died of brain cancer, and gave herself time to grieve not only his death but also the earlier loss of her parents and a close friend, Texas musician Stephen Bruton.
“It was not a relaxing time,” Raitt says. “It was a transformational time.”
On Slipstream, out today, the aching vocals in her ballads and unfettered guitar solos in spirited funk-blues tunes speak to the pain and progress when Raitt holed up in her Bay Area home, interrupting a long cycle of recording and touring.
“I was surprisingly tired and overwhelmed,” says Raitt, 62, sipping red bush tea in a bustling vegan-friendly eatery. “My brother had fought for eight years. He was blind and paralyzed. I really felt I needed to take time off after he died. It was wrenching.
“It’s amazing how the scaffolding of your everyday life and your job hold you together. Grief therapy brought up other things that needed to be addressed, childhood stuff. At first I thought, maybe I’ll buy an easel and get my watercolors out or go to some exotic place. But I realized you can’t run away from things you’re feeling. I’m lucky. A lot of people don’t have the luxury of unplugging from a job.”
Remodeling her home proved therapeutic, as did spending time with friends, family and her boyfriend of seven years (she’s mum on his identi-
“It’s amazing how the scaffolding of your everyday life and your job hold you together.”
ty). Fired up by a Jackson Browne concert, Raitt finally returned to the studio. “I got the bug again,” she says. She initially teamed with Americana artist Joe Henry, who produced four of Slipstream’s tracks, including his God Only Knows and blues-drenched renditions of Bob Dylan’s Million Miles and Standing in the Doorway.
Her collaboration with Henry “was was an organic, magnetic soul match,” she says. “I love his production, his taste, his vibe. His songwriting is among the best I’ve ever heard.”
Raitt produced the rest with her road band, cutting a reggae-leaning cover of Gerry Rafferty’s Right Down the Line, the sadly beautiful Not Cause I Wanted To, a rowdy take on Randall Bramblett’s Used
On why she took time off after her brother’s death
to Rule the World and assorted funk, rockabilly and blues, all with liberal doses of guitar.
“I got a taste for it from Gnawin’ On It,” she says, referring to her exuberant lick-swapping duet with Roy Rogers on 2002’s Silver Lining. “I’m not going to turn into a guitar hero, but I wanted to let go and indulge myself.”
Her first studio album since 2005’s Souls Alike earned a four-star review in Rolling Stone, which dubbed it “a loose and adventurous reminder of everything she does well.”
Raitt last topped Billboard in 1994. But charts are a poor barometer of her talent, says Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony Decurtis.
Raitt “is still vastly underrated both as a singer and a guitarist,” Decurtis says. “That’s because, without making any fuss about it, she hasn’t been willing to conform to anyone’s expectations. I’m stunned by how fresh and surprising she can be.
“She has a highly distinctive sound but loves to challenge herself, as she does here, working with Joe Henry to riveting effect. Slipstream can stand proudly alongside her best work.”
Fans will get an earful of her best work during Raitt’s Slipstream tour of more than 80 dates. It kicks off May 1.
“I’m looking forward to being in a traveling circus again,” she says. “Once I’m on the road, I get some peace and quiet. I ride my bike, I meditate. I’m ready to go.”