![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/bonnie-raitt.jpg\" "\\"bonnie-raitt\\"")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nBonnie Raitt is always listening. \u201cMy ear\u2019s always cocked for a possible direction,\u201d she says. \u201cSomething that\u2019s inspirational, either a song I want to do or a songwriter I want to investigate further. We\u2019ve got hundreds of CDs in our collection and files on our computer. I take songs with me on my iPhone and listen every day when I go for hikes. I listen in my car, I\u2019m listening while I\u2019m doing the dishes. It\u2019s like treasure hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raitt\u2019s skills as a singer, songwriter and guitarist are unquestionable\u2014her sly, keening slide-guitar solos and warm, inviting vocals are two of popular music\u2019s most recognizable sounds. But her keen instinct for hunting treasure shouldn\u2019t be underestimated. Among the previously buried gems she has turned into hits are John Hiatt\u2019s \u201cThing Called Love,\u201d Bonnie Hayes\u2019 \u201cHave a Heart,\u201d Paul Brady\u2019s \u201cNot the Only One,\u201d Shirley Eikhard\u2019s \u201cSomething to Talk About,\u201d \u201cLittle\u201d Jimmy Scott\u2019s \u201cLove Sneakin\u2019 up on You\u201d and David Gray\u2019s \u201cSilver Lining.\u201d \u201cI Can\u2019t Make You Love Me\u201d was an unknown tune by Nashville songwriters Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin when she found it; today it\u2019s a pop standard recorded by everyone from Prince to Adele. \u201cIt\u2019s work to find them,\u201d Raitt says. \u201cBut it\u2019s a joy when you\u2019ve uncovered the ones that are just right.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a talent heard in full on Slipstream<\/em>, Raitt\u2019s 16th studio effort and first since 2005. The previous years had seen Raitt keeping up a heavy touring schedule while coping with the deaths of both her parents\u2014Broadway singer John Raitt and pianist Marjorie Goddard, who had divorced in 1970\u2014as well as her brother, Steve Raitt. \u201cFor most of 2010 I decided to unplug and get in touch with some of the other aspects of my life,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d had a lot of loss and illness, so it was good to be able to stay in one place and deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n She emerged from that time off ready to try something new. Raitt called producer Joe Henry who had recently helmed albums for her friends Allen Toussaint and Mose Allison. Recording at Henry\u2019s home studio with a backing group that featured master jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, Raitt swiftly cut almost an album\u2019s worth of material. She then regrouped with her faithful studio and touring band, including bass player James \u201cHutch\u201d Hutchinson, drummer Ricky Fataar, guitarist George Marinelli and new keyboardist Mike Finnigan, and headed into Ocean Way studios in Hollywood to cut more tracks. There Raitt acted as producer on a batch of more uptempo numbers, including a cover of Gerry Rafferty\u2019s 1978 hit \u201cRight Down the Line.\u201d<\/p>\n Slipstream<\/em> combines eight cuts from Ocean Way and four from Henry\u2019s house into a blend of rock, pop, reggae, blues and R&B that is instantly familiar as Raitt\u2019s unique territory. It\u2019s a plot of musical ground she has been steadily refining and expanding since her 1971 self-titled debut, recorded when she was a 21-year-old California girl rocking East Coast clubs alongside blues legends like Sippie Wallace and Howlin\u2019 Wolf. \u201cPeople say, \u2018How did you get into blues, being the daughter of a Broadway singer and living in Los Angeles?\u2019\u201d she notes. \u201cIt\u2019s not geographic, it\u2019s not racial, it\u2019s not economic. If it speaks to you, it\u2019s almost like it\u2019s recalling something in your DNA. You get it so bad, it\u2019s in you and it\u2019s got to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n That it did, over a course of albums that found her piling up critical acclaim but attracting little interest from the mainstream. Her astounding second act came in the late 1980s, when a newly sober Raitt launched a collaboration with producer Don Was that produced a series of multiplatinum albums stretching from 1989\u2019s Nick of Time<\/em> through 1994\u2019s Longing in Their Hearts<\/em>. She followed up by digging into grittier fare with producers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake on albums like 1998\u2019s Fundamental<\/em>, 2002\u2019s Silver Lining<\/em> and 2005\u2019s Souls Alike<\/em>. The latter was her final album for her longtime label home, Capitol. For Slipstream<\/em>, Raitt elected to set up her own Redwing Records imprint. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky to be established enough that I could afford to do it,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t have to start from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n We caught up with Raitt at her home in the Bay Area, shortly before she caught a plane to Los Angeles. \u201cThe internet makes it possible to have my office in L.A. without living there, so it\u2019s great,\u201d she notes, settling in for what she says is her first extensive interview in several years. \u201cI haven\u2019t formulated some of these answers in so long that I don\u2019t know what to say,\u201d she quips with a laugh. Raitt was nonetheless her typically eloquent and easygoing self as she discussed her history, new music and plans for the future.<\/p>\n