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Quick Facts
- NAME: Bonnie Raitt
- OCCUPATION: Activist, Songwriter, Guitarist, Singer
- BIRTH DATE: November 08, 1949 (Age: 63)
- EDUCATION: Radcliffe College
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Burbank, California
- Full Name: Bonnie Lynn Raitt
- ZODIAC SIGN: Scorpio
Best Known For
Bonnie Raitt is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose musical range encompasses blues, folk, rhythm and blues, pop, and country rock.
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Play NowBonnie Raitt. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 05:37, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875.
Bonnie Raitt. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Bonnie Raitt." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 05:37 http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875.
"Bonnie Raitt," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Bonnie Raitt," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Bonnie Raitt [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875.
Bonnie Raitt, http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Bonnie Raitt. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-raitt-9450875. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Bonnie Raitt’s first few albums largely comprised traditional blues material and introduced Raitt's supple phrasing, feminist stance, and abilities as a slide guitarist. Her career declined somewhat in the 1980s as she struggled with alcoholism but soared again when her 1989 release, Nick of Time, reached the top of the charts. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Early Career
Bonnie Lynn Raitt was born in Los Angeles, California, on November 8, 1949, to Broadway singer John Raitt and pianist Marge Goddard. The daughter of bohemian parents, Raitt was raised in the Quaker tradition and from an early age showed an interest in social activism as well as music. When she was only 8 years old, the soon-to-be blues musician was given a Stella guitar for Christmas. Despite her natural talent for the instrument, Raitt had a wide variety of interests as a teenager.
Raitt headed to the East Coast for college at Radcliffe, eager to leap into the social turmoil of the 1960s. She once said, "I couldn't wait to get back to where there were folkies and the antiwar and Civil Rights movements. There were so many great music and political scenes going on in the late '60s in Cambridge."
Alongside her interest in social issues of the day, Raitt kept up with her music and often played at local coffeehouses between classes, fine-tuning her signature style — a gritty, passionate voice coupled with skillful interpretations on the bottleneck guitar. Soon a staple of the Boston folk-and-blues circuit, she met blues promoter Dick Waterman, who would in turn introduce her to the likes of Sippie Wallace, Son House and Muddy Waters. It wasn't long before her reputation and insights into the blues guitar attracted the attention of record executives at Warner Bros.
By 1971, Raitt had released her self-titled debut album, which consisted mostly of carefully chosen covers. Her contemporary interpretations of songs like Del Shannon's "Runaway" and others by Randy Newman, John Prine and Eric Kaz impressed critics who hailed her as a prodigy. Despite her newfound status as a critical darling, Raitt struggled to find commercial success. It wasn't until 1977's Sweet Forgiveness that the singer had a hit. Soon thereafter, Warner Bros. and Columbia Records were locked in a bidding war to sign the rising star.
In the early 1980s, Raitt played a number of benefits that appealed to her long-held Quaker ideals. From nuclear war to apartheid, the guitarist would play for hundreds of causes throughout the years. She would go on to share bills with the likes of the Doobie Brothers, James Taylor and Jackson Browne.
Commercial Success
Still lacking the commercial success to match her critical acclaim, Raitt continued to experiment musically. It wasn't until 1989 that she would really make her commercial breakthrough. Working with a new label (Capitol Records), Raitt hit her stride, smoothing out the kinks in her style to strike a successful balance between commercial and critical success.
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Influential Female Musicians of the 1960s
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