Bonnie Raitt
If you're reading this you probably already know that I'm opening a few shows for Bonnie in April (2025).
I'm honored and excited. I've known Bonnie for a long time, and for a long time before that, I was (and still am) a big fan.
I don't remember when I first heard her, but I loved her beautiful mix of Blues, Folk, RnB, and a touch of Jazz. She influenced me, a lot. I remember as a teenager going to the Harvard Coop in Cambridge, MA. and searching through the vinyl record bins in those categories specifically, Tom Rush singing "No Regrets", Junior Wells singing "Checking on My Baby", James and Bobby Purify singing "I'm Your Puppet", and Bonnie's first album:
I've been working with the singer Katie Matzell and through her, I've just recently re-discovered the song "Thank You" that Bonnie wrote on that album. So cool, with the slinky RnB guitar style that I love to play. I never studied it, but it must've come into my hands through osmosis. On the folk side, don't miss the gorgeous Paul Siegel song Bonnie plays so beautifully on this album, "Any Day Woman."
Bonnie was probably living somewhere down the street from Harvard Square in those days. I was going to go to Harvard that summer but my Dad wouldn't pay for it. I wasn't sophisticated and independent enough yet, to think that maybe I should get a job and pay for it myself. Speaking of "Independent", that is the title of the first song of mine that Bonnie recorded, but I'll get to that here in a minute.
I've written about Allen Toussaint here before. He was the one who inspired me to be a songwriter. Bonnie recorded two songs of his,"What Is Success" and "What Do You Want the Boy to Do?". They are piano-based songs, not guitar songs, though of course, Bonnie's killer slide guitar playing floats over these piano chord changes so beautifully. I played piano daily growing up, until my mother sold the piano. One of these days when I "settle down" I'm going to dive back into the piano again and try writing songs on it.
Regarding slide guitar, I bought my first Dobro quite a while ago now. I went to Gruhn guitar shop in Nashville with the idea of buying a metal bodied National steel, but left with a lovely wooden one named "The Californian" which has a beautiful warm tone.
I've written a lot of songs on it. One that Bonnie said she liked was this one called "Flower Girl":
https://music.apple.com/us/album/flower-girl-remastered/693008130?i=693008135
My inspirations for my slide style were Bonnie, Greg Leisz and Jerry Douglas. Because there are no frets, it's the most fluid and human sound a guitar can make. Bonnie credits Lowell George (Little Feat) as her original slide inspiration.
When I was maybe 19, I found the address of Bonnie's then-manager Dick Waterman in Cambridge. I made a cassette of a few of my early songs, likely including a bluesy one called "Waitin' on the Green Light", and "Back Down to Earth." I knocked on their door and dropped off my tape. A few years later that strategy worked for me in New Orleans when I did the same, and Aaron Neville recorded my song.
Fast forward to my life in Los Angeles. Aaron Neville, Chaka Khan, Mavis Staples, and others had recorded my songs and I had released my first album. One day I sent out tapes to Eric Clapton, Bonnie, and a few others. Bonnie called, liking a song called "Independent" that she ended up trying on for size, putting her vocal on my demo. That was never released, but I played her "Nobody's Girl." It ended up on her "Nick of Time" album and the rest is history. What a beautiful moment, hearing her sing my song back to me. I'm a very lucky person
Have fun!