listen to a little Bonnie to read by...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhe3vb0z7mY
Bonnie Raitt waited until she was 'really ready' for 'Slipstream'
It's been seven years since Bonnie Raitt's last album. She took time off to be a fan and get fired up. Now she has 'Slipstream' and concerts with Mavis Staples.
Singer Bonnie Raitt has a new album out Tuesday. (Marina Chavez / Shorefire Media / April 6, 2012)
By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times
April 7, 2012
Whether touring, winning Grammys or fighting for the rights of music veterans, singer and guitarist Bonnie Raitt has always had plenty to keep her busy. So over the course of her four-decade career, a gap of a few years between albums wasn't unprecedented.
But this time around, the seven-year lapse between her last CD and her new effort, "Slipstream" (arriving Tuesday), is different.
The nine-time Grammy Award winner pulled off the road, put the band that she's toured with for decades on ice, and joined the audience.
"I got to go to gigs — just be a fan, no pressure whatsoever," said Raitt, 62, in between sips of iced tea at the vintage Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City, the neighborhood just outside where she grew up as the daughter of Broadway star John Raitt and singer-pianist Marge Goddard. "I got to see a lot of jazz, African world music and the symphony, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass [Festival in San Francisco] — I got to go two years in a row. That'll fire you up to get back into music."
The experience recharged Raitt for the making of her new and 19th album, most of which she produced, sans four tracks that came out of sessions with singer, songwriter and producer Joe Henry.
"I waited until I was really ready, and then those Joe Henry sessions, it was like having my blood changed," she said. "You can be off only so long when you have this in your blood."
Now back in the game, Raitt is gearing up for her forthcoming tour, which will hit the Greek Theatre on Sept. 22. On that leg of the tour she'll be sharing the bill with one of her heroines, Mavis Staples.
She'll play old and new material, some of which was co-written by longtime friend and former NRBQ guitarist, singer and songwriter Al Anderson for her new record. And although she recorded at least an album's worth of material with Henry for "Slipstream," she decided to include just four songs on the record, saving the rest to release later.
"I couldn't do two CDs — it would be too confusing for the fans," she said, "and I wanted to give the Joe project its own space down the line. I didn't release Joe's first because I didn't think it was the right blend of all the different sides of me to put out an entire record of that kind of beautiful, elegiac, stately, spooky kind of tone next to something like 'Split Decision,'" she said, referring to one of the characteristically raucous rave-ups from Anderson on "Slipstream." "I picked these songs so I could play them live, so I can have that [elegiac ballad] groove, or I could play a James Brown song."
The album is the first release on her own label, Red Wing Records. It's largely run by trusted associates so Raitt can focus on being a musician, "but ultimately," she said, "I'm saying yes or no to everything. If you've got a good management team and you can find a good distributor and a great PR company, it works better than being at a label. If somebody's not working out, you can change it, which you can't always do on a label."
She expressed less frustration about music business issues in recent years than with the often hostile, fractionalized tenor of debate she encounters in her many social and political endeavors.
Raitt, who helped launch the Rhythm and Blues Foundation to protect the rights of veteran R&B musicians and started the Bonnie Raitt Guitar Project with Boys and Girls Clubs of America to provide instruments and lessons to underprivileged youths, has also been a longtime supporter of anti-nuclear efforts.
She was one of the participants in the original No Nukes benefit concert in the 1979, and was on the bill in last year's anniversary reunion show in the Bay Area, along with Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills & Nash and others. She's also been sympathetic to the Occupy movement protests.
"It's so polarized," she said of politics today. "It's hard not to get cynical. I hope it won't be tragedy that brings us all together, but there's a slow burn going on.... We need to reconnect and find out how many of us are purple instead of red and blue. There's Prince — he could do it."
The egalitarian sentiment may reflect her pacifist upbringing as a Quaker, but the biggest factor in her refusal to give into cynicism is her music. "The great thing about the arts, and especially popular music, is that it really does cut across genres and races and classes," said Raitt.
"At Farm Aid, especially in the early days, somebody like Willie [Nelson] and Neil [Young] and John Mellencamp could get artists from all different sectors to come together on behalf of the farmers.... You see people come together and cut across all lines, and there's no judgment when there's inarguable suffering because of a man-made or natural disaster. Maybe we could take a cue from that."
randy.lewis@latimes.com
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Singer Bonnie Raitt is returning to the land of music with a new studio album Slipstream, her first release in seven years.
Bonnie Raitt has announced that after a seven year absence from the music industry she will be releasing a new album. Revealing the news to AP, the 12 track collection will hit shelves sometime this New Year and is entitled ‘Slipstream’.
“I took a hiatus from touring and recording to get back in touch with the other part of my life. I’m so inspired and so proud to continue these traditions, whether it’s reggae or soul or blues. I’m in the slipstream of those who came before me, and I’m leaving one for those behind me.”
According to CBS News, Raitt, who's last album ‘Souls Alike’ was released in 2005, will drop the album by way of her very own record label, Redwing Records, created by the sixty-two year old seasoned performer.
The ‘Have a Heart’ singer reportedly produced most of the music on Slipstream, with the help of Joe Henry. The studio release will also feature the likes of Bill Frisell, NRBQ’s Al Anderson, Ireland’s Paul Brady and Maia Sharp, per Jambands.Com.
While on hiatus from the music biz, Raitt has shared that she not only lost her parents, but suffered the death of her brother, and mourned the loss of her best friend.
The singer and guitarist, who was named one of the top 100 guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone, will churn out an album that reportedly includes a taste of rock 'n roll, blues, jazz, some reggae, and more. Raitt also covers Bob Dylan's ‘Million Miles’ on the album. “It's just a new batch of great songs,” she shared.
=D
Can't wait till Tuesday!