Bonnie Raitt has been in the music business for more than half a century. But her status as a blues rock legend—with 13 Grammy Awards, an induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and an honor from the Kennedy Center, among others—wasn’t always as destined as it now seems.
It took 18 years, nine albums, and one life-changing turn toward sobriety for Raitt to achieve true breakthrough success with 1989’s Nick of Time. That album, along with 1991’s Luck of the Draw and 1994’s Longing in Their Hearts, cemented her place in the cultural zeitgeist and, eventually, in just about every hallowed hall in which musicians might have their names etched.
Not that Bonnie is or has ever been one to rest on her laurels. Last year, she took home three Grammys, including “Song of the Year” for the title track from her latest release, Just Like That… (2022). All that on the heels of her Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
Nowadays, Bonnie is still touring, with her 75th birthday coming up in the fall. Rather than targeting huge arenas and amphitheaters in major American metropolises, she’s been taking her groundbreaking talents to more intimate venues, often within the vicinity of (but not always directly in) big cities.
Case in point: Bonnie and her band booked plenty of shows in California, but none in Los Angeles proper. Instead, after two nights at the 1,400-capacity Humphreys Concerts by the Bay in San Diego, they trekked out to the desert to delight fans inside the 3,700-seat Special Events Center at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio. As Bonnie explained to the crowd, it’s venues like this, beyond the usual hustle and bustle, that allow her to “get loose” with her performance.
Personality-wise, she did just that. Before just about every song, the 74-year-old took time to share stories and musings about all manner of topics, from the song she was about to sing, to the state of the world at large.
After turning the page on an entertaining opening set by British blues artist James Hunter with her own “Longing In Their Hearts”, Bonnie bemoaned the upcoming election in the United States—an interesting stance, given her past and longtime political activism—en route to singing “God Was in the Water”. Prior to “Love Me Like a Man”, which occasioned an appearance by her acoustic guitar, she fired off some verbal shots at the recording industry for not paying artists their fair share of streaming royalties. By and large, though, Bonnie didn’t tread into controversy the way she might have in eras past.
She shared some thoughts about her five-plus decades in music and praised Mavis Staples for ticking along at the age of 85 as a lead-in to “Made Up Mind”, from her most recent album. That release got more play by way of “Blame It on Me”, but not before Bonnie riffed on the nuances of Fridays, Sundays, and weekends as a whole. Two songs from Nick of Time—”Love Letter” and the title track, on which Bonnie shared keys with Glenn Patscha—came amid birthday shoutouts to celebrants in the audience.
There were also some somber moments, as well as songs to accompany them.
She twice paid her respects to her friend and contemporary, the late John Prine: before “Angel of Montgomery”, which he wrote, and ahead of “Just in Time”, which she noted was inspired by the former. Toward the end of the main set, she put passion and power behind “Livin’ for the Ones”, a song about all the people lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, Prine included. To open the encore, she briefly eulogized Tom Campbell, the famed organizer of many a benefit concert who passed away this August, before bursting into the balladic “I Can’t Make You Love Me”.
At seemingly every turn, Bonnie went out of her way to commend the songwriters behind the tunes she brought to life. She namedropped John Hiatt before singing “No Business”, did the same for Zimbabwean musician Oliver Mtukudzi prior to performing his song “Hear Me, Lord”, and ended the main set with Irish songwriter Paul Brady’s “Steal Your Heart Away”. She even closed out the encore with a pair of covers: Michael McDonald’s “Matters of the Heart” and Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House”.
The high point of the show, though, came midway through, when Bonnie, Glenn, guitarist Duke Levine, and the longtime rhythm section of James “Hutch” Hutchinson on bass and Ricky Fataar on drums combined on her seminal hit “Something to Talk About”. On that song, and every other one in the setlist, Bonnie showed off her superbly textured voice and precise skill on guitar, both of which showed little (if any) wear from her many decades in the business.
That same timeless talent will be on full display all across the U.S. for the next two and a half months. Find tickets on Ticketmaster. Check out a gallery of images from Bonnie Raitt in Indio courtesy of photographer Josh Martin and check out some fan-shot videos from the following night’s show in Costa Mesa.
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