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Bonnie Raitt: You’ll go crazy if the blues get you down

on March 10, 1973 No comments
By Dave Stearns – Daily Egyptian Staff Writer

Bonnie Raitt is well-endowed.

She has a voice that is sweet but gutsy, a quick wit and a deep understanding of traditional country blues.

All of these aspects that make her a fine artist were apparent at her concert Thursday night in Shryock Auditorium.

Bonnie Raitt combined an outstanding presentation of country blues with dry humor to captivate a somewhat subdued SIU audience Thursday night in Shryock Auditorium. Despite not feeling well during the performance Ms. Raitt won over mere than a few new fans and received two standing ovations during the two-hour show. She had previously performed at SIU in 1971 with Randy Newman.

“You’re so reserved, you must be trying to figure me out,” she told the audience, which was more subdued than the usual SIU crowd. Ms. Raitt did not make the audience dance in their seats, but she wasn’t trying to. Communicating emotions that were sometimes subtle and other times raw, she received two standing ovations.

“I didn’t have my Wheaties today,” she quipped, for it was apparent that she was not feeling well.

On her albums, Ms. Raitt showed that she was best at interpreting the songs of pop composers like Stephen Stills and Jackson Browne. But Thursday night, her country blues renditions were the best. Her voice was a bit hoarse and this complemented her interpretations.

Improving and refashioning the melodies of her songs, Ms. Raitt’s smooth voice suggested the singing of Billie Holiday. Her voice would make bluesy smears up an octave and into her falsetto, settling into a quavering vibratio, a blues-ism which did not sound mannered or contrived in the least.

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Ad-libbing lines between her vocal phrases, she spoke straight-forwardly as if she was looking the audience square in the eye.

Grinding out sexy lyrics in “Love Me Like a Man,” she occasionally mushed together the words which sounded like an old black blues singer.

On the other hand, Ms. Raitt’s interpretation of “That Song About The Midway” was soulful and quiet. She added her personal blues inflections to this Joni Mitchell song and drew out certain words for emphasis, like “I’m still at the races with my ticket stubs and my blues.”

Even more melancholy was “Love Has No Pride,” which ended the show and was sung so straight-forwardly that one might think that she was living the song.

With her fuzzy-haired bass player, Freebo, Bonnie played Spanish national guitar and showed that she has considerable ability with slide and finger picking techniques. This aspect of her talent tends to be covered up on her albums by accompanying musicians.

Without a warm-up act she won over the audience with her dry humor. With overtones of Women’s Liberation, she said, “I’d like to thank God, whereever she is…”

She joked about her tiredness saying, “Now I’m going to take a twenty-minute intermission so I can do some push-ups and run around the building a few times.”

Tired or not, Ms. Raitt is a fine combination of singer and musician. Although her energy was lacking, her talent was clearly perceiveable and her music was endlessly listenable.

The Daily Egyptian – March 10 1973

Source: © Copyright The Daily Egyptian

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