Bonnie Raitt Just Like That... 2022

Bonnie Raitt is having one heck of a late career surge. At 72, she has done it again, making the kind of blues/pop/rock/folk that she has always produced, and doing it as well as ever. With her last two releases, the 2012 career highlight Slipstream, and 2016's Dig In Deep, we now have the trifecta that eludes so many artists, three great ones in a row. Given the quality of her work over the years, it should not come as any surprise, and yet it is no less an impressive string of exceptional work.

All the elements are here. Bonnie is first a singer of great depth, one of those who inhabits a lyric. If you don't choke up when she sings a sad one, there's something wrong with you. Then there is her gifted way with slide guitar. Never flashy, and always perfect for the song. She also has an ear for great songs, and always finds some classics from a wide array of writers, plus she writes several strong ones herself. And she is once again using her touring band, and they are a very talented group. Ricky Fataar drums, Hutch Hutchinson bass, Kenny Greenberg guitar (long-time guitarist George Marinelli on two tracks), and new keyboardist Glenn Patsche. It is a well-oiled machine. Recorded and mixed by Ryan Freeland, who did similarly fine work on the two before this one.

The record kicks off with the upbeat Made Up Mind, which starts things off in fine style. Al Anderson's Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart has a laid back tempo and some tasty slide from Bonnie. Livin' For The Ones is a Stones-y rocker from Marinelli and Bonnie that rocks more than most and features hot guitars. Bonnie's own Just Like That is a tender acoustic ballad that tells an intense story of love and loss. When We Say Goodnight starts slow, then picks things up, and ends with a hot guitar/keyboards jam. 

Your Jones is always just around the corner is the message of Waiting For You To Blow, a funky workout featuring Patsche on the Hammond B3 and electric piano. Slow burner Blame It On Me has one of those killer close-miked Bonnie Raitt vocals, plus more fine slide guitar and B3. Love So Strong is a Toots Hibbert reggae tune that lets the band stretch a bit. More funky electric piano and slide light up Here Comes Love, and Bonnie's pen closes the record with the sweetly moving Down The Hall, a story of a prison hospice, played on acoustic guitar and organ, with another touching vocal.

If you've liked her recent work, this won't disappoint. If you haven't heard Bonnie since 1989's Grammy-winning  Nick Of Time, you've been missing out.

John Hiatt Bring The Family 1987

In The Absolute Sound magazine May/June edition, they updated and published their Super LP list, an extensive listing of LPs that have better sound than most. There's a lot of classical music entries, but there is also a pretty extensive list of great pop/rock and jazz LPs as well. One of those is John Hiatt's 1987 classic Bring The Family. The record is nicely recorded and does indeed sound great, and the band (Hiatt on guitar and vocals, Nick Lowe on bass, Jim Keltner on drums and Ry Cooder on guitar) is superb.

If you haven't heard it, you must. It is another record that should be on my perfect records list, every song is just plain killer. Hiatt has made several that approach its greatness, but he hasn't bettered it.

I listened to it not too long ago, but the featured list made me pull it out and listen again. Not only is the band unusually talented, but Hiatt brings one of the finest set of masterfully written, heartfelt songs ever recorded, and he sings the daylights out of them all. His vocals are close-miked and you can feel the choke in his voice on the sad songs. But it is certainly not all sad, with Memphis In The Meantime, Thing Called Love (made famous by Bonnie Raitt), Thank You Girl, and the humorous Your Dad Did.

But those ballads are strikingly beautiful. Have A Little Faith In Me is as perfect a love song as any ever sung. Learning How To Love You is right there with it, an ode to staying with the learning curve for the payoff. Lipstick Sunset is as melancholy and sweet as a song about imperfect love can be. Tip Of My Tongue tells the story of the man that said the wrongest thing ever, and paid the highest price.

I broke your heart
With the back of my mind
From the tip of my tongue
To the end of the line

 

You couldn't say how much it hurt you

And I couldn't see the damage I'd done
'Til I watched the greatest love I've known
All come down to a slip of the tongue

 

Well I'd take it back
But time won't let me
No, time just takes
You further away

 

I watched you pack
A house full of memories
Where did you go
Lord, what did I say?

 

I broke your heart
With the back of my mind
From the tip of my tongue
To the end of the line