By NATE CHINEN

“The Ones We Couldn’t Be,” the final track on Bonnie Raitt’s soul-rattling new album, “Dig in Deep,” is a rueful hymn to what might have been. “My glass is raised for all the ways/We tried to get it right,” she sings, sifting through the remnants of a relationship that could be romantic or familial.

Ms. Raitt, 66, has long had a knack for conveying the voice of experience, as a bottleneck guitar hero and a singer-songwriter steeped in rhythm and blues. “Dig in Deep,” the second release on her own Redwing label, is a digest of her proven strengths: For every bittersweet ballad, there’s a steamrollering groove. Ms. Raitt’s band tears into a few playful but persuasive covers (like “Need You Tonight,” by INXS). And she wrote or was a co-writer of five new tracks — her highest ratio on an album in 18 years.

With her 2012 album, “Slipstream,” Ms. Raitt returned to the spotlight and found herself renewed after a long hiatus spent contending with the loss of several close family members. “It just gave me a push that really just didn’t stop,” Ms. Raitt said. “It feels so good to feel frisky and vital again, and not have a cloud over you. It’s like being 22 again. Only better.”

“Slipstream” was also well received: It won a Grammy for best Americana album. Ms. Raitt has been a strong bet at the Grammys since 1990, when she won four awards for “Nick of Time,” including album of the year. Last week, she delivered one of the standout performances in this year’s ceremony when she paid tribute to the blues legend B. B. King, flanked by Chris Stapleton and Gary Clark Jr.

She spoke from Los Angeles by phone, during a break in rehearsals for a tour that will bring her to the Beacon Theater on April 1. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Q. The response to your Grammy performance was rapturous. What did that mean to you?

A. I figured that it would be moving, because B.B. was so beloved. I was knocked out that they wanted to get somebody from my generation, who actually knew him. I’m a little verklempt right now, talking about it. But I was definitely carrying the power of B.B.’s impact and what he meant to me.

That theme of loss, and the passing of time — you’ve been writing and singing about it for a while, and more so recently.

It organically comes out in the lyrics I write, or the songs that I choose. Part of it is about getting older, and the hubris of thinking that we were really going to keep it together for so many years. With time and being knocked down, there’s a certain leveling that happens. You’ve got to have a sense of humor about it or you’re going to be in trouble.

“Unintended Consequence of Love,” from the new album, also shows some mileage: It’s a song about what happens to love over the long haul.

Exactly. Just the way that a relationship gets stale. That’s really salient in my life. I have two members of my band who have been married for over 45 years, and I look at them and go, “How did you do that?” I have my own arc, but I find it fascinating. There’s a real art and intention in making a relationship vital again, and that’s what I wanted to write about.

“You’ve Changed My Mind” feels even more rooted in real-life experience: “A page has been turned/Some old fears unlearned/And I know you’ve changed my mind.”

We’re in rehearsals now, and as usual there’s too many ballads to fit into a show. I have to do “Angel From Montgomery” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” or people will shoot me. There’s always room in the tour for one of the newer ballads, but not two or three. That Joe Henry song, we played it yesterday and I just broke down and sobbed. It was so moving to me that I had to go and collect myself. I told the band, “I’ll see you in 15 minutes.”

By George Varga | Feb. 20, 2016

Bonnie Raitt was a precocious 21-year-old blues devotee when she recorded her self-titled debut album in 1971. Today, 10 Grammy Awards and 19 often splendid albums later, she remains a tireless champion of American roots-music — and one of its most vital performers.

She is also a beloved inspiration to a broad array of her fellow performers. Her admirers include such 2016 Grammy Award telecast performers as Adele, San Diego’s Andra Day and Best Country Album winner Chris Stapleton, who teamed with Raitt to and Gary Clark, Jr., on a searing, pitch-perfect version of B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” at Monday’s Grammy show. Raitt’s blues-drenched singing and stinging bottleneck guitar playing were both highlights.

“I’m absolutely a fan of hers.” Stapleton said backstage. “Isn’t everybody?”

“She’s a strong woman,” San Diego-bred singer Day said. “And she’s a great artist, singer, songwriter and guitar player.”

“She’s a lovely, lovely soul,” agreed Jon Cleary, a former Raitt band member and the 2016 Best Regional Roots Music Album Grammy winner. He co-wrote “Unintended Consequence of Love,” the riveting opening song on Raitt’s terrific new album, “Dig In Deep,” which will be released Friday.

At 66-going-on-16, Raitt has lost none of her enthusiasm or devotion to music, as the consistently absorbing “Dig In Deep” handily affirms. Her North American summer tour to promote the album includes a July 27 concert at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

The second consecutive release on her own label, Redwing Records, “Dig In Deep” comes out 45 years after her debut album. It is one of her most rewarding albums to date, which is saying a lot; a tantalizing mix of aching ballads, gritty rockers and rollicking blues shuffles, along with potent reinventions of INXS’ “Need You Tonight” and Los Lobos’ “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes” (the latter featuring some of her most galvanizing guitar work ever).

Bonnie Raitt, “Gypsy In Me”

Each song, including five gems written by Raitt, is delivered with the fire and finesse that have have long been her trademarks. True to the album’s title, she digs down to the essence of each note and lyric. What results sounds both fresh and timeless, as befits a veteran artist who is steeped in tradition, but not bound by it, deeply reverent to her musical inspirations, but eager to keep moving forward and explore new vistas.

“This album means a lot to me,” Raitt said, speaking from her Marin County home. “I put all my heart and soul into it.”

Yet, had all gone as this Burbank native envisioned back in the 1960s, things would be very different today.

“I went to college to be a social activist and community organizer with the American Friends Service Committee, which is the social resolution arm of the Quakers,” said Raitt, whose father, John Raitt, was an enduring star of musicals, on and off Broadway.

“I minored in African studies and was ready to move to Africa,” she continued. “Then I met (blues promoter, manager and album producer) Dick Waterman, and my life was changed when, through Dick, I met all my blues heroes. I took a leave of absence from school and got a record deal offered to me. I figured it would last a year, and then I’d go back to college.”

She never did, although Raitt proudly notes: “I got an honorary degree from the Berklee College of Music and received the Harvard University Arts Medal, which was wonderful.”