Sept. 10, 1999

They are some of America’s most respected singer-songwriters and veteran performers. Now Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin and Bruce Hornsby have formed an all-star ensemble for a monthlong national tour.

With guitarist David Lindley, they’ll perform in various combinations and as a band at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Saturday and Sunday night.

The idea for the tour was born last year after Raitt, Browne and Hornsby played relief concerts for victims of Hurricane Mitch, which tore through Honduras last fall.

“This is as good as it gets for me. I’m so excited, I would walk to Red Rocks,” Raitt says.

“Nobody wants to leave the stage – if it’s a song that I’m not on, I generally go sit by the drums and listen because it’s so great,” Browne adds.

“I enjoy playing with other people – it’s really important to me. So this is a dream come true in a lot of ways,” Colvin enthuses.

“Here are three artists with whom I’ve sung along in the car for years. Now I get to sing that harmony part at the gig!” Hornsby says.

In the past, Raitt, Browne, Colvin and Hornsby have worked with each other on stage and in the studio. Their mutual admiration was obvious as each star spoke to The Post about the others.

Bonnie Raitt

Browne: “We’ve always had this great connection. We’re from the class of ’70 – we’re roughly the same age. She lives to be surrounded by men … and to embarrass us all. No one said she had to get better – she was already really great.

“When she swept the Grammys in 1989 it was such a pleasure because now everybody knew about her instead of just her cult following. But she kept stretching and making better records. I listen to her play every night, and something comes ripping out of her – she’s relentlessly in search of deep feeling and deep meaning.”

Colvin: “I bought her second record first – I don’t know why that was – and then I went and bought her first record. And I was absolutely a devoted follower. In all my bar gigs, she and Joni Mitchell influenced my singing a great deal, to the point where I had to actively try to get away from my mimicking of them. She’s a mentor.”

Hornsby: “In the summer of 1988, I was sitting in a hotel coffee shop in Tulsa, when all of a sudden the receptionist comes over and says, “Excuse me, you have a call from Bonnie Raitt.’ So sure enough, Bonnie was calling me up out of the blue – she had tracked me down just to say she was a fan, which was an amazing thing. We became friends after that. We’ve been doing things for years.”

Jackson Browne

Raitt: “I met Jackson in 1970 – we played a double bill at the Jabberwocky coffeehouse at Syracuse. Then we did a lot of concerts together. I got a band, and when “Streetlights’ came out in ’74, Jackson invited me to open for him for 50 cities on my first national tour. So it was 13 guys and me on a bus for two months – I loved it!

“He’s probably the closest I have to a brother in politics and songwriting and just as a friend. We’ve done so much singing on each other’s shows and albums. I don’t think anyone could be any closer, including Sonny & Cher.”

Colvin: “He’s like all really cool musicians – he continues to be inspired by new people. If I was in a town that he was in, he would come and hear me.

“One time in Providence, R.I., I started at 11 and he ended at 11, so he came over when his concert was done. We’d never sung together before, but it was a rowdy crowd and I didn’t care. I said, “C’mon, you have to sing something.’ I just gave him the guitar. He started doing “Sing My Songs To Me.’ And the greatest part was he forgot the bridge! He started going to the very last verse, and I go, “Wait, wait, you forgot the part about, “And there may never be a chance … ”- ‘ He was like, “Oh, wow, I totally forgot that part.’ So I was singing his song to him. That was a great moment.”

Hornsby: “There’s lots of Jackson’s catalog that we’re not doing that I wish we were, because I know it fairly well. … I used to get a lot of Jackson Browne comparisons on my first record, for good reason, because I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time.”

Shawn Colvin

Raitt: “Shawn and Sheryl Crow are the top of the heap in terms of my absolute heroes for female songwriters. … The level that they’re working at is so inspirational for me.”

Browne: “She’s a lot younger than us, but she became my favorite songwriter at a certain point. You get inspiration wherever you can find it, and you can go out and actively search for the people who are going to mean something to you, but looking and looking, you still don’t find someone like Shawn who is so fully formed – her first album was just a tour de force.

“She adds a counterpoint to Bonnie’s blues-oriented soulfulness. She’s got an amazing voice as a singer, but her writing voice, her narrative voice, has this deep, ethereal quality that brings up things in your own life.”

Hornsby: “Shawn totally moves me. I was on her first two records, and she was on my third record and the song “Lost Soul.’

“- “Lost Soul’ is very interesting on this tour. That song is a bunch of people talking about a guy – “There was a man of confused and sad nature … ‘ – and then him talking at the end. So it should be a quartet song, but it was hard to get one going on it, it wasn’t completely accurate. And this year, it is for the first time – Jackson sings the first verse, Bonnie sings the first half of the second verse, Shawn sings the second half of the second verse, and then I am the guy they are talking about, singing at the end. Finally, we are doing it the way it was written.”

Bruce Hornsby

Raitt: “Bruce is the one who raises the bar on an artistic level. His absolutely buoyant and spontaneous approach, and his multi-instrumental abilities – that’s what makes it something so special and so different. We knew that we were all going to sing well together, we already knew all the words to each other’s songs. But those two weeks of rehearsal with Bruce playing on anything of ours was so extraordinary – he is just pure music.

“He was a tremendous influence on me when I toured with him … He never plays the same set and he never plays a song exactly the same way. I’ve been incredibly inspired by that – last June, I went out on tour with my band and pulled songs out of a hat.”

Browne: “I met Bruce through Bonnie. He’s a freak – there’s nobody like him. … He’s got such a goofy sense of humor and such ability to keep himself fresh and everybody around him. He’s constantly changing everything – he’s the one who’s most likely to hang a big left turn in the middle of the set and take us all some place that we weren’t planning on!

“I didn’t realize how many great songs he’s written that I wish I’d written. “Down The Road Tonight’ – he really captures something about that particular subject.”

Colvin: “I’d just gotten a record contract, and I had the opportunity to meet him at a benefit concert he was doing. I was very shy about it, but I wanted to give him a tape. I’m sure he thought I was just another person who wanted him to play on something. But nonetheless, he was gracious toward me – and a few days later, he called me. He had listened to the tape, and he said, “This is the greatest thing, me and my brother are going crazy over this – I’ll do anything you want on your record.’ It was so thrilling for me. He’s been very supportive, the big brother – he’s been through it all before I have.”

Who: Bonnie Raitt with Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Hornsby
Where: Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Tickets: Saturday’s show is sold out. Sunday’s show: $40 reserved, $30 general admission, plus fees, through Ticketmaster (303-830-8497 or www.ticketmaster.com).