Bonnie Raitt’s audience is aging but she isn’t. Between
songs before a sold out Kennedy Center Concert Hall this weekend, she joked
about her past and expressed amazement at still having fun making music.
“When I started doing this at 21, I never thought I would
still being doing it at 66. But then I never thought Donald Trump would be
running for President.” To that, a fan shouted: “Bonnie for President.” It
would have been a landslide.
Raitt’s nearly two-hour concert was a walk down memory lane
with side trips to songs from her new album, “Dig In Deep.” Against a
Hotel California set, she rocked, crooned, mourned lost loves, played the
blues, celebrated gospel music and kept up a running commentary. Recalling she
was last at the Kennedy Center for an honors tribute to Buddy Guy, she noted,
“Definitely not a juke joint this place.”
Her greatest hits seemed as fresh as the DC Cherry blossoms
(which she had toured earlier): Something To Talk About, Working on a Love
Letter, Right Down the Line, and a nearly acoustic version of Angel from
Montgomery that sent chills down your spine.
After doing a similar lament from her new album, Undone,
written by Bonnie Bishop, she quipped, "It was a lot of pain there. But I have learned after all these
years I don’t have to live every
lyric.”
Raitt is one of the few performers who can segue smoothly
from Sippie Wallace’s, I’m A Mighty Tight Woman to a Zimbabwean spiritual, Help
Me Lord I’ m Feeling Low. Often
her transitions are respectful memories of songwriters and performers. Or she
has a statement to make: “Money and politics so pissed me off, I had to do this
one: Ain’t Gonna Take It. Then Shake it, Shake it, Shakin, carried its
anti-nuclear power plant refrain: “Oh it makes me tremble.”
Her bandmates, including George Marinelli on guitars, Mike
Finnigan on Hammond B-3 and piano, James Hutchinson on bass and Ricky Fataar on drums are so good they
distract your eyes from the star. That is, until, you hear this rippling riff
and you realize: Whoa, that’s coming from Bonnie’s bottleneck guitar, of which
she is a master. After all, she explained,“I did learn from John Hammond.”
This area has become a favorite of hers, thanks to the boost
she and groups like Little Feat got from progressive radio station WHFS. “In DC
people came to see us whether we had a Grammy or not.”
Her encore set captured the conflict of her music and
everyone’s emotional roller coaster. I Can’t Make You Love Me (which of course we did) followed
by That’s Just Love Sneaking Up On You. With that the Gypsy Lady was on back on the luxury bus
for the summer tour.
