Vanessa and I went to hear Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal in Prospect Park last night and I was, once again, reminded of why Bonnie Raitt is literally one of the coolest women alive (Taj was awesome too, of course!). Many people don't know Raitt's story and it's a truly radical one. From her official bio:
In the late '60s, restless in Los Angeles, she 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."
In a time when so many white musicians seem to take what they want from historically black music and then promptly get amnesia about where it came from, Raitt has always honored her influences and been deeply involved in social justice work. Her truly unique voice and stunning guitar skills are gracefully situated in the blues she was brought up in and she's constantly creating opportunities for the somewhat forgotten blues greats to get on stage and enlighten people.
Thanks for eighteen albums and forty odd years of bad-assery Bonnie!
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Wow - Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal together? What an awesome show that must have been!
Bonnie was a mainstay in our house's music collection when I was growing up, and even as a little girl I thought it was so cool to see and hear a woman playing guitar and fronting a band. And like you said Courtney, she always seemed very much in admiration of the people who came before her, and very willing to declare their influence and impact on her.
Her music isn't my usual bag now, but when I'm at my folks' house and it comes on, I still know all the words :)