Bonnie Raitt:
“I never thought of it in terms of men or women, I taught myself to play guitar because I was in love with Joan Baez’s voice, and she was also a Quaker.
“I taught myself country-blues off of records that didn’t even include women, but I didn’t think about it at the time. Dave Van Ronk, John Hammond, Jr., and (the trio) Koerner, Ray & Glover were the first people I heard who made me realize it was OK to be white and play blues, and that you weren’t (trespassing) on hallowed ground.
“Barbara Dane and Judy Roderick were two blues women in the 1960s who knocked me out. I knew about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but a little later. Pops Staples was one of the guitar guys for me. And two of my heroes were Memphis Minnie and Sippie Wallace. I was inspired by the whole story about Minnie being a street busker and sometimes disguising herself as a man.
“I knew Aretha (Franklin) played piano, and thought it was great, because I loved the way she accompanied herself. And Ray Charles was as important to me as anybody. I learned off of records, as many of us kids did. I took piano lessons, but not guitar lessons. So I was trying to emulate how Fred McDowell, Son House and Robert Johnson played. There wasn’t any YouTube then, so I had to do it by ear.”
Interview By George Varga
6 comments:
Thanks for this. Bonnie Raitt is fantastic. I've seen her twice, in the late 90s and last year. She is always great.
Oh welcome Gman! Ain’t she great! That’s a great span of gigs and I bet she was just as good last year!?
Thanks for dropping by
Yup, so great. I checked and it was actually 2002 that I first saw her. Lyle Lovett and his large band opened, which was my introduction to his music. I was blown away by both of them. For 2023's show, it was her short Las Vegas residency, with no opening act. She insisted that cameras be put away for the show (or be asked to leave). At the encore, she thanked everyone as she enjoys seeing the faces in the audience and not the cameras. I can understand, as I'm guilty of taking a bunch of pictures at concerts. She let us pull out the cameras for the last song. I did, however, have my Tascam pocket recorder and have the audio for the whole show. The Venetian theater is a great location, with great acoustics. And though it's an audience recording from the balcony, it's a good one. The crowd was very respectful. Great memories!
Superb stuff Gman! Great anecdote and what a way to discover Lyle too! [another favourite!]
Wow I mean Lyle AND Bonnie!? Just wow!
Thanks for these reminiscences
Absofuckingloosly AWSOME BLOG!!!!
Wow Fredfry! Nobody ever said THAT before!
You are most welcome . . . . . . it’s just me trawling the blogosphere for music that I enjoy and fortunately my tastes are somewhat catholic and not to say eclectic (people other than I have said. . . ) but think that’s mainly why folks like it that do!
Thanks so much
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