Bonnie Raitt
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Bonnie Raitt (1971), 5/10
Give It Up (1972) , 7/10
Takin' My Time (1973), 6/10
Streetlights (1974), 5/10
Home Plate (1975), 4/10
Sweet Forgiveness (1977), 4.5/10
The Glow (1979), 4/10
Green Light (1982), 6/10
Nine Lives (1986), 4/10
Nick Of Time (1989), 5/10
Luck Of The Draw (1991), 5/10
Longing In Their Hearts (1994), 5/10
Fundamental (1998), 5/10
Silver Lining (2002), 5/10
Souls Alike (2005), 4.5/10
Slipstream (2012), 5/10
Dig in Deep (2016), 4.5/10
Just Like That (2022), 4.5/10
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Bonnie Raitt is a immensely talented bottleneck guitarist, not to mention an effective singer with a raspy, husky contralto voice, who is arguably the greatest blues-woman of modern times and one of the greatest white blues musicians of all times. Raitt was raised in Los Angeles and started playing in Boston, but was trained at the school of Chicago's bluesmen. She debuted with a wise selection of blues covers, Bonnie Raitt (Warner, 1971), highlighted by her soulful grit.

Give It Up (Warner, 1972) focused her persona on contemporary folk and pop material, and introduced her own songwriting, especially Nothing Seems To Matter, Love Me Like A Man and the title-track. At the center of all the action were the twangs and squeals of her bottle slide guitar. Her voice bloomed too, making for a perfect combination of singing, guitar and soul. It remains one of her best.

After the insecure Takin' My Time (Warner, 1973), featuring Taj Mahal and Lowell George, and the over-produced Streetlights (Warner, 1974), Raitt turned transformed into a country singer with Home Plate (Warner, 1975), possibly her worst album ever, and Sweet Forgiveness (Warner, 1977), slightly less trivial.

Continuing to move away from her rough and rowdy origins, The Glow (Warner, 1979) offered uninspired pop for the masses. Raitt's career seemed doomed.

After a hiatus of three years, Raitt recovered her best form for Green Light (Warner, 1982), that delivers both the punches (Willya Wontcha) and the emotions (River Of Tears) of hear early work. But it did not have a follow up, as Nine Lives (Warner, 1986) is a terrible patchwork of leftovers and pop songs.

Suddenly, Nick Of Time (Capitol, 1989) was greeted as a masterpiece. It wasn't, of course. Thanks to producer Don Was' immaculate and electronic sound, and to John Hiatt's A Thing Called Love, she conquered the critics and the charts. Her own Nick Of Time showed she could finally compete with the songwriters she had been covering for two decades. It was the third peak of her career.

Luck Of The Draw (Capitol, 1991), with Come To Me, and especially Longing In Their Hearts (Capitol, 1994), with a gigantic cast worthy of a symphonic orchestra (and half the tracks written by her), continued that success.

John Hiatt's Lovers Will was the highlight on Fundamental (Capitol, 1998), that features members of Los Lobos and NRBQ, and Silver Lining (Capitol, 2002) continued her journey through the roots of black music.

Her next albums repeated her successful formula, dividing the songs between blues-rockers and country-pop ditties. If Souls Alike (2005) seemed to end and era, Slipstream (2012) showed that nothing had changed, with Ain't Gonna Let You Go on the blues front and Down To You and Marriage Made In Hollywood on the country front. Dig in Deep (2016), whose highlights are perhaps the covers of Los Lobos' Shakin' Shakin' Shakes and Inxs' Need You Tonight, and Just Like That (2022), with the roaring, Bruce Springsteen-ian Livin’ For The Ones, the soul-rocker Here Comes Love (composed by Lech Weirzynski of jazz group California Honeydrops) and her own somber and stately Just Like That (with the lyrics "They say Jesus brings you peace and grace, but he ain't found me yet"), continued her classy schizophrenic career.

Artistically, her biggest limitation is to have depended too much on her producers and on the material of other songwriters.

(Translation by/ Tradotto da Francesco Serini)

Bonnie Raitt suona la chitarra con il bottleneck con immenso talento, e seppur non viene ricordato che è una cantante con una voce da contralto rasposa e secca, di fatto proprio questo non sola la rende la più grande cantante femminile blues dell’era moderna, ma sicuramente una tra i più grandi musicisti bianchi blues di tutti i tempi. Raitt crebbe a Los Angeles, cominciò a suonare a Boston ma si formò alla scuola dei blues man di Chicago. Debuttò con una accorta selezione di cover blues racchiuse in Bonnie Raitt (Warner, 1971) che mise in luce una personalità già formata. In Give It Up (Warner, 1972) risaltava l’uso fatto di tutto materiale folk e pop contemporaneo, nonché il suo particolare modo di scrivere soprattutto in Nothing Seems To Matter, Love Me Like A Man e la title-track. Al centro di tutto il lavoro c’erano gli acuti della sua inseparabile chitarra slide. La sua voce ancora acerba creavano una perfetta combinazione tra cantato, chitarra e anima. Rimase uno dei suoi lavori migliori. Dopo l’incerto Takin’ My Time (Warner, 1973) con prestigiosi ospiti come Taj Mahal e Lowell George e il troppo levigato Streetlights (Warner, 1974), Raitt si ripresentò come una cantante country con Home Plate (Warner, 1975), forse il suo peggior album di sempre e Sweet Forgiveness (Warner, 1977) leggermente meno banale. Tenacemente volendo allontanarsi dalle sue origini rudi The Glow (Warner, 1979) la spinse verso un pop di massa privo di ispirazione. La carriera della Raitt sembrava orami finita. Dopo un silenzio di tre anni ritrovò la sua migliore forma in Green Light (Warner, 1980) offrendo insieme, l’energia (Willya Wontcha) e le emozioni (River of Tears) dei primi tempi. Ma il seguito non fu all’altezza. Nine Lives (Warner, 19869 è un mal riuscito mosaico di melliflue canzoni pop. Inaspettatamente invece Nick Of Time (Capitol 1989) venne celebrato come un capolavoro, seppur non lo era. Però, grazie al suono elettronico e (visto i risultati) quasi divino del produttore Don Was e anche del pezzo A Thing Called Love di John Hiatt, riuscì a conquistare critica e pubblico. Con Nick Of time dimostrava che poteva ancora dire qualcosa alle nuove cantautrici di cui era stata per due decenni maestra. Questo fu il terzo apice artistico della sua carriera. Luck Of The Draw (Capitol 1991) con Come To Me e soprattutto Longing In Their Hearts (Capitol 1994) con un grandioso cast degno di una orchestra sinfonica (e con la metà dei pezzi scritti proprio da lei) fu un altro successo. Il brano di John Hiatt Lovers Will risaltava in Fundamental (Capitol, 1998) in cui comparavano anche membri dei Los Lobos e NRBQ mentre in Silver Lining (Capitol, 2002) continuò il suo viaggio tra i ritmi della black music. Artisticamente il suo più grande limite è quello di dover dare eccessivo peso ai suoi produttori e al materiale di altri cantautori.

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