We travel to Los Angeles for the first half of Episode 2, where Carmel talks to legendary producer, bassist, and Blue Note Records president, Don Was about his first gig ever at age 12 opening for Joni Mitchell. Don also shares how he learned an important life lesson from listening to Blue, and discusses the sophistication of Joni’s harmonic and poetic compositions, and how this naturally intersected with some of the greats of jazz, including their mutual friend, the late Wayne Shorter. Next, in a heartfelt conversation, host Carmel Holt tells Bonnie Raitt that her own road to Joni began with cassettes of Blue and Bonnie’s 1974 album Streetlights, and we learn that her version of “That Song About The Midway” also holds a very special meaning for Bonnie, including performing the song in Joni’s living room at one of the Joni Jams. Bonnie shares how inspirational and important Joni has been for her, and the ways she has impacted her work.
SHEROES RADIO - The Road to Joni - She's Like Cézanne - September 2024
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SHEROES Productions is proud to present The Road To Joni,honoring the legendary Joni Mitchell.
The series, a 10-week takeover of the SHEROES Radio Hour and companion music interview podcast, will release new episodes weekly as Carmel embarks on a cross-country road trip from New York to California and back again; and will run through November 7, Joni’s 81st birthday. Midway through, Carmel will stop in Los Angeles where Joni Mitchell will be performing two “Joni Jam” concerts, on October 19 and 20, at the Hollywood Bowl.
“The Road To Joni” will air on all 23 SHEROES public radio affiliates across the country and will be released as a podcast, distributed by the Talkhouse Podcast Network, available everywhere. Subscribe now to “The Road To Joni” wherever you listen to podcasts.
During the 2-month journey, Carmel will stop in select markets for events, tapings, and on-air visits in cities where the SHEROES Radio Hour is broadcast, creating a communal experience among public radio partners, listeners, and fans. These stops include Minneapolis (The Current), Austin (KUTX) and Los Angeles (KCSN). All dates are listed below.
Featured guests will include Joni Jam members Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe of Lucius, Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Hozier, and SistaStrings, as well as Bruce Hornsby, St. Vincent, Bonnie Raitt, Brittany Howard, esperanza spalding, Madison Cunningham, Arooj Aftab, Natalie Merchant, Kathleen Edwards, Béla Fleck, Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso), Courtney Marie Andrews, Anaïs Mitchell, Jobi Riccio, Naomi McPherson (Muna), Anthony Mason (CBS News), Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), Don Was, and longtime Joni Mitchell photographer, Norman Seeff (who, among other well-known photographs of Joni, shot the cover image for Hejira, now used with permission for “The Road To Joni”).
As an independent feminist and queer-powered production team, SHEROES has historically been a femme and non-binary focused series, and for the first time is opening its doors wide for guests of all genders for its most inclusive production thus far to celebrate one central SHERO.
The Road To Joni
September 11 – Philadelphia, PA (WXPN)
September 13 – Pittsburgh, PA (WYEP)
September 14 – Akron, OH (WAPS)
September 15 – Ann Arbor, MI (WKQL)
September 17-18 – Milwaukee, WI (Radio Milwaukee)
September 19-21 – Minneapolis, MN (The Current)
September 23 – Des Moines, IA (Iowa Public Radio/Studio One)
September 24 – Kansas City, MO (The Bridge)
September 26 – Dallas, TX (KXT)
September 27-30 – Austin, TX (live event at KUTX 9/29)
October 4 – Santa Fe, NM (KBAC)
October 10-23 – Los Angeles, CA (KSCN)
October 19-20 – Los Angeles Joni Jam (Hollywood Bowl)
Carmel Holt is a podcast host and radio personality with a proven ear for curation and presentation. Over the past two decades, she has become known for her warm delivery, passionate support of new and emerging talent, and her natural rapport with artists. She has hosted engaging, conversational interviews with everyone from Courtney Barnett to Cat Power, Death Cab For Cutie to Paul McCartney, Mitski to Maggie Rogers, Bob Weir to Yola, Leon Bridges to The National, Ex Hex to The xx. Her extensive knowledge of music, and affinity for connecting with artists has made her a trusted and beloved host.
If we had the ability to assess who is the most beloved figure in music — not in overall numbers, but sheer adoration, per capita and per peer — it likely wouldn’t be Taylor or Beyoncé but Mavis Staples, who has been taking us there since the late ’60s. There being the smile that crosses anyone’s face when fortunate enough to be in the same room, or even in just giving a passing thought to that voice, that presence, and all the different ways in which Staples embodies righteousness. The term “national treasure” doesn’t even begin to get at it.
With flowers-giving being a natural state of affairs for Staples at this point in her stature, drawing up a solid list of willing performers for a salute to the legendary singer probably doesn’t count as the most daunting task ever. An assemblage of musical greats in their own right gathered at the YouTube Theater in the greater L.A. area Thursday night for “Mavis Staples 85th: All-Star Birthday Concert,” a three-and-a-half-hour affair that had a roster including Hozier, Chris Stapleton, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Black Pumas performing on their own or, eventually, with the birthday gal.
Also on the crowded poster for the Blackbird Presents/Live Nation-produced concert were Jeff Tweedy, Nathaniel Rateliff, Norah Jones, Grace Potter, the War and Treaty, Taj Mahal, Robert Randolph, Keb’ Mo, Trombone Shorty and Michael McDonald … fronting a band assembled by Don Was and including such name players as Benmont Tench and Greg Leisz (plus her longtime guitarist Rick Holmstrom, who led Staples’ own touring band onto the stage for the very last stretch). The words “You Are Not Alone” — the title of a Tweedy-penned comeback song — were fairly applicable by the time the full cast came out to share “The Weight” at show’s end.
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Mutual admiration societies have a funny way of expressing themselves when Staples is in quip mode. When she brought Raitt out near the end of the show to sing “I’m on My Way” with her near the close of the evening, there was some fervent hugging, and Staples joked, “She grab me every chance she get.” Raitt explained herself: “You’ve got a secret. I wanna learn what that is.” Staples is probably one of the few artists around who could get away with saying to the singer and slide guitarist “Come on, little girl.” After their shared number, the legend kept calling out Raitt’s name and added, “Pops [Mavis’ father] used to say, ‘There’s a little piece of leather, but she’s well put together.’”
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Mavis Staples & Bonnie Raitt – Turn Me Around
Staples and Raitt nearly had a mild flirtation going on, and that seemed contagious. When Raitt was separately dueting with Browne, she had a moment of spontaneously blurting: “God he’s so good looking, isn’t he?,” noting that after all these years, she was “still looking at him, going, he’s still got it.” (“Bonnie’s still got it, too,” he replied, taking the compliment.)
Stapleton provided more contemporary firepower, hiding his from the spotlight under the shadow of his ever-present cowboy hat but letting his voice ring loud and clear alongside Staples’ on a moving duet of “Friendship,” first recorded by her father, “Pops” Staples, near the end of his life.
Hozier was the artist on the bill with the most heat in the present moment, with a song (“Too Sweet”) currently in the top 5. He also has some of the best bona fides for appearing at a tribute, since he wrote a song that in part pays tribute to Staples and then got her to sing on it — “Nina Cried Power” (named after another great singer who is name-checked in the tune), a single from his second album. Staples did not come out and reprise her vocal on that song, a duty that was instead ably taken over by the night’s backup troupe, the McCrary Sisters. In the absence of the guest of honor, he paid tribute to Staples as he does every night on tour, offering a spoken testimony about her historical impact.
“Artists like Mavis, in the words of WB Yeats, can hold in their work, in the same thought, reality and justice,” Hozier said. “And these two very often opposing things can show us a picture of our world, but also show us our love and the small things — it could be love between people, our neighbors — the small solidarities that hold our world together. One such example of that, a critical mass, obviously, was the civil rights movement. I say this every show when we play this song: The civil rights movement here in America that Mavis was in the center of directly inspired the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland… And there’s an Irish revolutionary by the name of James Connolly who once wrote that ‘no revolution is ever complete without its poetical expression.’ I just want to say, Mavis has always represented to me the poetical expression of the ongoing revolution of love and kindness.”
Hozier has an earthy side to go along with his high-mindedness, as anyone who has heard “Too Sweet” can attest. And so he paid tribute to Staples having these different sides, too — and showed off his own latent, classic R&B inclinations — by following “Nina Cried Power” with a cover of the sexiest song in Mavis’ career, “Let’s Do It Again,” a No. 1 pop and R&B hit for the Staple Singers in 1975.
Hozier is of course not the first younger artist to make a point of finding ways to put Staples back in the limelight. Wilco’s Tweedy did it by writing and producing an album for her a little more than 15 years ago that put her in front of a rock audience. The two of them performed the most memorable song from that recording with the touring band she brought along to accompany her on the night’s final stretch.
“Tweedy wrote this song for me. What year was that? — oh-eiight — and it’s the most beautiful song I had ever heard. So we went on and recorded it, and it got us a Grammy.” At another point in the show, Tweedy sang without Staples in reviving another song he wrote for her, “One True Vine,” the title track of their followup collaboration in 2013.
Performing on his own, Browne told the audience about his discovery of Staples at a key early point in his life. “I always tell Mavis that she’s been with me my whole life, but actually, it was (age) 15 when I first heard the Staple Singers in my sister’s apartment in Height Asbury and it changed everything.” That was when he started finding my own voice and singing my own songs,” and Browne said he was performing his song “These Days” for no other reason than “it’s from that period in my life.”
But he had a more tangible reason for following that with another original song, “World in Motion,” for which Raitt came out to share vocals and play slide guitar. “I recorded it with my band,” he said, “but a good friend of mine had the idea getting it to Pops Staples and having him sing it, which he did in ’92. And the person who had that idea was my good friend, my sister Bonnie Raitt. I’m always revising songs, they change all the time… but this is definitely my favorite version of this song, Pops Staples’ ‘World in Motion.’”
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Jackson Browne with Bonnie Raitt – World In Motion (Jackson Browne and Craig Doerge)
The two key members of Black Pumas, backed by the house band, did their own career-making “Colors,” along with a cover and a cover — the George Clinton-co-penned 1971 Funkadelic song “Can You Get to That,” which Staples and Tweedy adapted in 2013 for the “One True Vine” album.
Closing out the first act, before a brief intermission, Grace Potter covered a song from Mavis’ solo debut album of 1969, called “You’re Driving Me (Into the Arms of a Stranger),” and then emerged from behind her keyboard to explain what Staples meant to her. “This woman, she changed my life,” Potter said. “She made me see my future self and plan ahead for the woman I would become. And I want to play you that song that I wrote after meeting Mavis.” But, she cautioned, before playing “Big White Gate” (a 2013 song written about a woman becoming penitent as she approaches death), “I want to be clear, this is not a song about Mavis, because it’s not very complimentary!”
The husband-wife duo the War and Treaty were the only artist of the night to only do one number, perhaps to the audience’s slight disappointment — but what they lacked in minutes on stage, they made up for by slaying on one of the Staple Singers songs that almost anyone would most want to cover, “Respect Yourself.”
Hozier was not the only performer of the night who’d been driven to actually name-check “Mavis” in a song, although his was not a literal tribute to Staples. He performed that original number from 2020 before covering another of the night’s cover-of-a-cover — Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” which not everyone remembers that the Staple Singers did a near-instantaneous version of on a 1967 album (reaching No. 66 at the time on the Hot 100, a few years before the family group really broke big).
Trombone Shorty, a high point of Staples’ 80th birthday concert, came back to reach similar peaks for her 85th, playing “When the Saints Go Marching In” in the first half as well as sitting in with Taj Mahal and Robert Randolph for a jammy moment in the second.
Other highlights included Randolph’s “Baptize Me,” Mahal’s “You’ll Need Somebody on Your Bond,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken ” and “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” McDonald’s “People Get Ready” and “Freedom Highway,” Keb’ Mo’s “Clap Your Hands” and “Have a Little Faith,” and Jones’ “To Live” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”
To answer one FAQ, the YouTube Theater event was not filmed for a planned broadcast, even though most all-star concerts put together by Blackbird Presents are; it was a true you-had-to-be-there gala.
Celebrating Mavis seems to be a quinquennial event in L.A., as it doesn’t seem all that long ago that Staples was being feted with an 80th birthday party for the public at downtown’s Orpheum, so here is already looking forward to her 90th, exact local venue to come.
Although Bonnie’s name isn’t on the poster she was there to celebrate! – Mavis Staples 85th All Star Birthday Concert – Youtube Theater, Inglewood, CA 4-18-2024
Chris Willman is Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic at Variety.
He joined the publication in 2018 and is based in Los Angeles. Willman began his career at the Los Angeles Times, going on to spend 13 years at Entertainment Weekly as a senior writer and critic. He has been a regular contributor to Billboard, the Hollywood Reporter and TV Guide; his work has additionally appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, Spin, Parade and other publications. He is the author of the 2005 book “Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music,” cited by Stephen King as one of the three best music books of all time. Since joining Variety, he has received eight first-place honors from the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and seven from the SoCal Journalism Awards. The L.A. Press Club named him its Entertainment Journalist of the Year in 2020.
B.B. King, a man who knew a thing or two about blues guitar playing, once said that – in his view – Bonnie Raitt was the “best damn slide player working today.”
It’s an opinion few argued with at the time, and fewer still would take umbrage with today.
Raitt and King performed together on a number of occasions, one of which was the 2004 International Achievement Summit, which featured an evening concert at Chicago’s House of Blues headlined – in celebration of his induction into the Academy of Achievement (opens in new tab) – by King.
Raitt performed first on her own, before teaming up with King for a spirited rendition of When Love Comes to Town, a song U2 recorded with King for their 1988 album, Rattle and Hum.
Prior to starting the song, Raitt hits King – much to his delight – with some absolutely searing unaccompanied slide licks. “She loves to mistreat me like that,” King jokes with the crowd in response. “She knows I’m crazy about it!”
You can see the video of the performance – which begins with Raitt performing her song, Love Sneakin’ Up on You on her own – below.
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Armed with one of her signature Stratocasters, Raitt doesn’t stop with just the unaccompanied intro. Indeed, King – playing “Lucille,” his legendary Gibson ES-355 with no f-holes – seems more interested in listening to Raitt slide around the fretboard than in playing himself.
Though the cameras never get up close with Raitt, you can still get a great sense of her slide technique and how she – by wearing the guitar slide on her middle finger – switches seamlessly between rhythm and slide playing.
At various points, Raitt’s slide work causes King to egg the crowd into cheering her on mid-solo, and even – at one amusing point – get up out of his chair and dance.
“I taught myself to play, so my hand positions aren’t 100 percent correct – and I put the bottleneck on the wrong finger,” Raitt told Guitar World of her unique slide technique in a 2022 interview.
Bonnie Raitt: “I didn’t see anybody play slide, so I just figured it out in my room – and I put the bottleneck on the wrong finger!”
The blues-rock master takes us inside her bold new album, Just Like That…, and charts her never-ending journey through the world of slide guitar Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt returns to some of her beloved musical and lyrical themes on Just Like That…, her first new album in more than six years.
“You can play more if you have it on your ring finger. Fred McDowell used his little finger, but by then I was already down the road with it on my middle finger. I heard Robert Johnson and just tried to make myself sound exactly like whatever he was doing.”
Joe Bonamassa has also sung Raitt’s praises, naming her lead break on Thing Called Love (from Raitt’s 1989 album, Nick of Time) as one of the 10 greatest blues-rock guitar solos of all time.
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“She plays slide, and you know it’s Bonnie Raitt and you just go, ‘How do you do that with a Stratocaster and a glass slide?’” Bonamassa told Guitar World in 2019.
“It’s because she just has a way of phrasing and it’s in the DNA and it’s intrinsic.”
“You hear what she does with this song, a John Hiatt song, and you go, ‘Wow, it’s just super-original.’ It’s very restrained, but super-effective.
“Then you put that voice on top of it and it’s just like, ‘Yes! That’s it!’ To me, Bonnie Raitt is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time.”
Jackson is an Associate Editor at GuitarWorld.com. He’s been writing and editing stories about new gear, technique and guitar-driven music both old and new since 2014, and has also written extensively on the same topics for Guitar Player. Elsewhere, his album reviews and essays have appeared in Louder and Unrecorded. Though open to music of all kinds, his greatest love has always been indie, and everything that falls under its massive umbrella. To that end, you can find him on Twitter crowing about whatever great new guitar band you need to drop everything to hear right now.
Bandana Blues is and will always be a labor of love. Please help Spinner deal with the costs of hosting & bandwidth. Visit www.bandanablues.com and hit the tipjar. Any amount is much appreciated, no matter how small. Thank you.
Bonnie has contributed a new recording of "Prison Bound Blues" written by Leroy Carr to a project called Better Than Jail, an extraordinary new album benefiting Free Hearts and Equal Justice USA. Better Than Jail is available everywhere today and features covers of iconic prison songs from Steve Earle, Taj Mahal,Margo Price, The War and Treaty and many more. The album seeks to raise awareness and support for the urgent need to reduce the harm of the criminal justice system. https://found.ee/BetterThanJail.
I'm so proud to have joined in with so many illustrious artists in creating this very special album in support of rural prison reform. Overlooked for far too long, this issue cuts across all cultural and political divides and deserves all our focused attention to finally bring about some swift and meaningful action. Better Than Jail is one of the most inspired and heartfelt albums I've been blessed to be a part of and I hope it sets a fire in hearts far and wide to join in our efforts." ~ Bonnie Raitt
Released on: 2024-10-04 Executive Producer: Brian Hunt Producer: Kenny Greenberg Producer: Wally Wilson Producer: Bonnie Raitt Recording Engineer: Jason Lehning at Sound Emporium Mastering Engineer: Alex McCollough at True East Mastering Production Assistant: Shannon Finnegan Mixer: Justin Niebank at Hounds Ear Music Publisher: Universal Music Corp. Composer, Lyricist: Leroy Carr ℗ Believe Entertainment Group and Wyatt Road Records
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The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Nothing in Rambling Ft. Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo' & Mick Fleetwood
In celebration of the band’s 50th Anniversary, The Fabulous Thunderbirds have just released Struck Down, their first studio album in eight years on Stony Plain Records. The ten-track album includes a wonderful cover of Memphis Minnie’s “Nothing in Rambling,” featuring longtime friends, T-Birds founding member Kim Wilson, along with Bonnie, Keb’ Mo’, Taj Mahal and Mick Fleetwood. — BRHQ
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Little Feat - Long Distance Call
“I’ve always loved Little Feat and this new incarnation of the band is bringing some serious heat, cred and new blood to their enduring legacy. Every Feat fan loves us some Sam. I’m so glad he’s now gotten a chance to step out front and center and put his spin on these wonderful blues songs. I loved singing "Long Distance Call" with him, always one of my favorites, and Scott slayed on slide. Know you’ll enjoy hanging out with us at Sam’s Place!" -- Bonnie Raitt
“Long Distance Call” was written by blues legend, Muddy Waters. It has Sam Clayton and Bonnie Raitt on vocals, Scott Sharrard on Dobro, Fred Tackett on acoustic guitar, Tony Leone on drums, and Michael “The Bull” LoBue on harmonica. The album also features Bill Payne on piano and Kenny Gradney on bass.
Little Feat have composed an album that’s their love letter to the blues entitled, ‘Sam’s Place.’ “Long Distance Call” plus many other blues classics are on this album. You can stream and order ‘Sam’s Place’ here: https://orcd.co/samsplace
Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vol. 2, the anticipated new John Prine tribute record from Oh Boy Records, is out today. Stream/purchase HERE.
Created as a celebration of Prine’s life and career, the album features new renditions of some of Prine’s most beloved songs performed by Brandi Carlile (“I Remember Everything”), Tyler Childers (“Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You”), Iris DeMent (“One Red Rose”), Emmylou Harris (“Hello In There”), Jason Isbell (“Souvenirs”), Valerie June (“Summer’s End”), Margo Price (“Sweet Revenge”), Bonnie Raitt (“Angel From Montgomery”), Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (“Pretty Good”), Amanda Shires (“Saddle in the Rain”), Sturgill Simpson(“Paradise”) and John Paul White (“Sam Stone”). Proceeds from the album will benefit twelve different non-profit organizations, one selected by each of the featured artists.
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Bonnie Raitt - Write Me a Few of Your Lines/Kokomo Blues
60 years anniversary celebration of Arhoolie
December 10, 2020
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Arhoolie Foundation celebrates it's 60th anniversary (1960-2020) with an online broadcast.
Bonnie Raitt - Shadow of Doubt
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
October 3, 2020
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass celebrates it's 20th anniversary with an online broadcast titled “Let The Music Play On”.
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Bonnie Raitt & Boz Scaggs - You Don't Know Like I Know
Farm Aid 2020 On the Road
Sam & Dave classic written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter.
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Sheryl Crow & Bonnie Raitt - Everything Is Broken
[Eric Clapton’s Crossroads 2019]
Eric Clapton, one of the world’s pre-eminent blues/rock guitarists, once again summoned an all-star team of six-string heroes for his fifth Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2019. Held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, the two-day concert event raised funds for the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, the chemical dependency treatment and education facility that Clapton founded in 1998.
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'A Tribute To Mose Allison'
Celebrates The Music Of An Exciting Jazz Master
Raitt contributed to a new album, If You're Going To The City: A Tribute To Mose Allison, which celebrates the late singer and pianist, who famously blended the rough-edged blues of the Mississippi Delta with the 1950s jazz of New York City.
NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to Bonnie Raitt about her friendship with the Mose Allison. They're also joined by Amy Allison — his daughter, who executive produced the album — about selecting an unexpected list of artists to contribute songs to the album.
Recorded on tour June 3, 2017 - Centennial Hall, London - Ontario Canada
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