Roanoke audiences have waited 30 years to see Bonnie Raitt. In her sold-out 100-minute show on Nov. 15 at the Berglund Performing Arts Theater, the 75-year-old blues legend made her long-anticipated appearance worth the wait. An ecstatic, capacity crowd of 2,151 fans greeted the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with a standing ovation.

“I don’t play here often enough,” she admitted. “Thank you for coming out to see us and making us feel so welcome.”

Opening with the self-penned “Longing in Their Hearts” from 1994, Raitt followed up with “God Was in the Water” from her 2005 album Souls Alike. It was during the tour for that record that I first saw Bonnie Raitt live. My visit to Roanoke with my dear friend Jeremy Miller was my sixth concert starring the red-haired slide guitar virtuoso.

“For an L.A. person like me,” she said, praising our area, “seeing your beautiful hills in the fall makes me understand why you folks live here.”

Raitt then turned to her latest, triple Grammy-winning 2022 album Just Like That, performing “Made Up Mind,” “Blame It on Me,” and “Livin’ for the Ones Who Didn’t Make It.”

“When I lost my brother in 2009,” she said, speaking of the inspiration for the latter song, “I promised him I would spend the rest of my life grabbing the chances he never got to take.”

“A couple of real-life stories inspired me to write the lyrics to ‘Just Like That,’” Raitt continued, referring to the title track, which won her a pair of Grammy Awards in 2023, including her first for “Song of the Year.” “I wanted to write something like John Prine’s ‘Angel from Montgomery.’ I wish I could have played it for him before we lost him to COVID.”

John Hiatt’s “No Business” from Raitt’s best-selling 1991 album Luck of the Draw was another evening highlight. So was the classic “Love Me Like a Man” from her 1972 sophomore album Give It Up, not to mention “Spit of Love,” another original composition from 1998’s Fundamental.

Raitt launched into her biggest hit, “Something to Talk About,” by omitting the song’s intro altogether, diving straight into the memorable lyrics. The crowd was on its feet throughout.

Switching guitars for nearly every song—from slide to acoustic, electric, and 12-string—Raitt played each one flawlessly, as she did with every song she sang.

“It’s not a fashion choice,” she explained. “Each guitar is pre-tuned to the key of the song.”

At 75, her mezzo-soprano is in as remarkable a shape as her outward appearance. It was clear, however, that she saved her voice for the most important songs, like “Angel from Montgomery,” which brought the crowd to its feet again. Raitt never failed to deliver. Another element not lost with age is her raw sensuality.

“Even at this advanced age,” she said before launching into her 2016 cover of INXS’s “Need You Tonight,” “our thoughts still turn to this.”

She then headed to the piano for my favorite number, “Nick of Time.” As much as I couldn’t help but sing along to most of the songs, I was purposefully quiet during this one, making sure not to miss a single note. Raitt appeared to enjoy it as much as I did.

“I could play that all night,” she said, humming the popular hook she wrote for the title track to her chart-topping 1989 album.

Ending her main set with her cover of Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House,” Raitt returned to the stage promptly for a three-song encore, which featured the staple ballad “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” earning its own standing ovation.

“I couldn’t leave without singing you this one,” Raitt promised. “Mike Reid, a former football player with the Cincinnati Bengals, wrote this song. He’s this giant guy with a tender voice like Michael McDonald’s.”

She then offered another original, “One Belief Away,” which she wrote with Irishman Paul Brady and the late Zimbabwean Oliver Mtukudzi, who also passed away prematurely from COVID. “One Belief Away” from Fundamental was another real treat.

For her closing number, Raitt invited her opening act, James Hunter, on stage to accompany her on harmonica during the classic blues number “Never Make Your Move Too Soon.” Raitt originally recorded the song for her 1995 live album Road Tested, with the late rhythm and blues pioneers Charles Brown and Ruth Brown.

Before departing her adoring audience, Raitt left us with words of encouragement.

“Be kind to each other and let’s help each other through whatever it is we must overcome,” she said, bidding farewell to Roanoke. “Let’s make a conscious decision to be hopeful and joyful.”

Raitt’s opening act was The James Hunter Six. One member of the band was missing, though.

“He’s suffering from a better gig,” Hunter explained.

Although based in England, Hunter and his band of a pair of saxophonists, drummer, and keyboardist, were deeply immersed in the sounds of Motown and American soul from the ’50s and ’60s. Hunter’s own voice showed hints of Marvin Gaye, Ben E. King, and Levi Stubbs. An episode of The Twilight Zone starring William Shatner inspired his own composition, ironically titled “Nick of Time.”

“If England had sounded that good,” Raitt praised. “We wouldn’t have left.”

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It may have been an unseasonably chilly night outside, but any traces of wintry temps were quickly dashed inside the confines of Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall last Saturday night, thanks to the heat the performers generated all night long. In one of the better and most attractive double-bills to hit the local touring circuit, a sold-out crowd was treated to the breathtaking talents of headliner and blues/pop veteran Bonnie Raitt, accompanied by R&B/blues powerhouse, James Hunter.

Raitt’s last local performance at the hall, almost exactly two years ago to the date of this current show, found the flame-haired singer apologizing throughout the night for the constant cough and vocal issues she was experiencing. As she swigged hot beverages and popped cough drops to counter the problem, she, as a longtime touring warrior and genuine professional, never missed a note or nuance in either her trademark strong, commanding vocal delivery or in her warm and slinky slide guitar playing.

This time, without a trace of any vocal ailments, Raitt and her exquisite five-piece band, on the penultimate stop of their current tour, were about as on the mark and tight as any one of the sometimes loud and raucous audience members in the seats could have asked for. Delivering a steady, two-hour dose of the type of melding of blues and pop music styles Raitt has perfected since her debut album’s release, nearly half a century ago, the longtime professional injected her brand of humor, optimism, and feel-good vibes into the program, thanks to the music she performed and her between-song addresses to the crowd.

Making the fondness she holds for the local music hall known, Raitt made mention of her gratefulness for the way the performance venue was built: “I love how this hall is banked so steep! I can hear you, see you, and feel you!” the singer proclaimed, for which she was met with enthusiastic applause. Raitt has played this venue on multiple occasions in the past and has sold it out to its capacity on every visit. Based on what she gives to her audiences while performing, both in musical prowess and human and relatable interaction, it’s easy to see why audiences keep coming back.

Kicking things off in high gear, Raitt opened her set with “I Sho Do,” a soul song co-written by Teenie Hodges, the late songwriter and former lead guitarist for R&B legend Al Green. Raitt recorded the song as part of her 1994 album, Longing in Their Hearts, and it served as a perfect vehicle to quickly show off that her, husky voice and to give any unknowing patrons a sampling of her sharp and slick slide-playing. Shifting gears, as she so eloquently and tastefully has done for the better part of her career, Raitt then eased her way into the swampy, loping blues of “God Was in the Water,” from her 2005 release, Souls Alike, which perfectly displayed one of the many reasons her fiercely loyal audience has followed her for so long; Raitt is an artist who thrives on stretching out musically, and paying her respects to the wide palette of styles and genres she admires and feels a kinship with.

Wisely surrounding herself with musicians who share her sheer professionalism and musicianship. Raitt benefits from having folks like esteemed session guitarist Duke Levine by her side, and former Beach Boys drummer (and member of The Rutles, the mock band modeled after The Beatles), Ricky Fataar, keeping the beat. However, the longest-standing member of her band is dynamic bassist Hutch Hutchinson, who has been in Raitt’s band for over 40 years. Each musician stood out in their own right and supplemented the warm, cozy sounds Raitt poured out all night, which made for a night of great sounds and fine displays of raw talent.

Raitt’s knack for wisely and expertly tempering the flow of her performances is almost as fascinating as what she’s able to naturally exude through her musical chops. The mixing of deeper album cuts, or covers, with her more well-known pop hits (many of which came after her late-’80s resurgence, following her blockbuster album Nick of Time), is somewhat brilliant in how it keeps all audience members, from the diehards to the more casual fans, rapt and anxious to see where she’ll go next. As soon as the opening chords of “Thing Called Love,” the bawdy John-Hiatt penned romp that served as the lead single for the Nick of Time album, were cranked, a huge wave of applause and vocal approval came from the audience. Playing the song with every ounce of enthusiasm and sass as she has since the song helped catapult her to newfound fame and (long-deserved) mainstream attention, Raitt seemed downright joyous to provide the crowd with a distraction from the ills of the world for a while.

“Let’s get some civility in the world, and some peace” the singer pleaded during one of her more solemn and hopeful between-song messages of the night, a statement that was met with wide approval. Lamenting on lives lost and absent friends, Raitt remembered some of her musical collaborators and cohorts who are no longer among us. She made her admiration for, and the sorrow she still feels following the 2020 death of folk/country troubadour John Prine—who kept a house in nearby Gulfport—known throughout the night. Prine, a renowned and revered singer and songwriter, is responsible for writing one of the first songs for which Raitt earned her earliest acclaim, “Angel From Montgomery,” after she recorded her version of it in 1974.

Further displaying her love of music of all styles, Raitt also called out the losses of reggae legend Toots Hibbert (from Toots and the Maytals fame), and Oliver Mtukudzi, an afro-jazz musician and activist from Zimbabwe with whom she’d collaborated in the past. Performing his composition “Hear Me Lord,” Raitt introduced it as a gospel song and asked for audience participation, which she easily wrangled, for the song’s memorable chorus.

Joking about her age, and the fact that she’s still out on the road, Raitt, who celebrated her 75th birthday a few weeks ago, referred to performing as being in her blood and her genes. “My dad stayed on the road ‘til he was 85. The only reason why he stopped was because his audience passed away,” she joked while remembering her father, performer and star of stage and screen, John Raitt.

For her encore, Raitt provided what was probably the ultimate highlight of the program. Sitting on a stool at the center of the stage, and without her trusty Fender Stratocaster guitar in hand, she delivered her most soaring vocal performance of the night when she dug deep and squeezed every bit of emotion she could muster for a show-stopping reading of “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” the tender ballad from her 1991 platinum-selling album, Luck of the Draw. It’s easy to presume that, if anyone in the venue might have still been unsure of Raitt’s charisma and appeal, this was undoubtedly the moment in which any of those notions were easily dispelled.

Wrapping up the night with “Never Make a Move Too Soon,” a bold blues rocker most-closely associated with late blues legend B.B. King, Raitt gave each of her stupendous band members an opportunity to shine individually by allowing them to take smart, tasteful solos which punctuated the rollocking number. She also asked the night’s opener, James Hunter, to join the band onstage for her closing number, to inject some rousing harmonica work into the night’s final song.

Hunter was met with his own well-earned ovation, thanks to the 45-minute set he warmed the crowd with, prior to the headliner taking the stage. Known for his steeped-in-tradition approach to soul, R&B, blues, and doo-wop, Hunter is every bit the musical chameleon his touring mate is. The British-born singer/songwriter/guitarist seems to have been plucked from another era, based on his musical style and perspective. Once a touring member of Van Morrison’s band, Hunter broke out on his own with his first U.S. released solo album, People Gonna Talk, in 2006, and has been touring and releasing stellar albums ever since.

Widely unknown to this audience, based on chatter heard around the seats prior to his taking the stage, it didn’t take long for Hunter and his no-nonsense band, The James Hunter Six, to make fans of the unknowing patrons. Boasting two sax players, a stand-up bassist, organist and drummer, Hunter’s nattily dressed band looked almost as cool as they sounded. Cramming in 13 songs for his set, Hunter easily navigated through a multitude of genres thanks to a set list that consisted of album tracks from his lengthy repertoire, some covers, and some as-of-yet unreleased songs that are due to appear on his next studio album.

Looking more like a pool hall hustler than a killer R&B musician, Hunter, clad in gray suit, and black shirt, truly looks and sounds like he stepped out of another era. His pure, unadulterated soulful croon on “I Can Change Your Mind” from his 2020 album Nick of Time (a title he mentioned as one he coincidentally shares with the night’s headliner) is reason enough to believe that Hunter is the real deal. Not so much a revivalist, as a bona fide admirer and lover of good, traditional soul music, Hunter is a gift to the cause, and a welcomed bearer of the torch for keeping one of the greatest genres of music alive and well.

His true moment of awe came when he tackled “Baby Don’t Do It,” the 1953 tune originally recorded by American R&B group, The “5” Royales. Crediting the group for inventing soul music, Hunter delivered a scintillating version of the classic, thanks to his towering vocals, which brought to mind the stylings of some of his musical forefathers, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson, while adding his own tasty blues guitar licks throughout. Pretty staggering stuff, which was happily welcomed by the somewhat unexpecting audience. Adding covers by other luminaries like blues legend Clarence Gatemouth Brown and smooth R&B crooner Percy Mayfield, Hunter, like Raitt, did a fine job of mixing his own material with selections from the songbooks of other artists, and did so in fine style.

One of his as-of-yet-released selections entitled “Off the Fence” somehow managed to smartly mix gritty soul music with a samba beat, and the result was quite sumptuous, making his next release something to look forward to.

Based on the warm and hearty reaction Hunter and his band received, it’s safe to say that this audience will not only be awaiting his next recorded work but will more than likely be in attendance the next time he graces a local stage with his charismatic presence.

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