Her love of the blues began as a child, when, at age 8, she was given her first guitar. Raised in Los Angeles in a musical family (her father was Broadway singer John Raitt, and her mother, pianist and singer Marge Goddard), she was drawn early on to a musical path and was deeply impressed by the blues and slide-guitar playing featured on 1963’s Blues at Newport.  When she moved across the country to attend Radcliff College (the then sister schoolto Harvard University), she quickly became involved with the social-political scene exploding on college campuses and in urban coffee houses through the folk music movement. Three years later she left school and devoted her life to music. Before long this fiery redhead was gaining widespread attention for her renditions of Mississippi blues standards and blues-influenced compositions ofher own.

With the self-titled 1971 release Bonnie Raitt, she made her name as a talented slide guitarist and artist with a musical soul that transcended any one style or niche. Bonnie Raitt had a lot more to say.

Over the next seven years she recorded six albums, including Sweet Forgiveness, featuring a Memphis/R&B arrangement of Del Shannon’s “Runaway.” She went on to win four Grammy Awards for 1989’s Nick of Time, three more with Luck of the Draw in 1993, and took home the award for Best Pop Album for 1994’s Longing in Their Hearts. This string of multi-platinum successes launched Raitt into mega stardom and produced a cannon of American contemporary classics including “Something to Talk About,” “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” and “Love Sneakin’ Up on You.” 

In recognition of her outstanding influence on the musical world, 2000 Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Throughout her career Raitt has collaborated with numerous others artists, including her father on the Grammy Award nominated Broadway Legend in 1995, and Ray Charles on his final release, Genius Loves Company. She also participated in Martin Scorsese’s 2003 PBS series The Blues. In the past few years she has recorded with Stevie Wonder and participated in a tribute to the Santa Cruz Blues Festival’s other headliner, Al Green.

Along the way Raitt has been a vocal champion of several causes, including environmental sustainability (her Green Highway Festival tours celebrate bio-diesel fuel and other forms of alternative energy), the halt of nuclear proliferation, and Native American rights. In 2004 she was active in the “Votefor Change” presidential campaign with Jackson Brown and Keb Mo.

Never far from her true passion setting great lyrics to timeless music, 2002’s Silver Lining included the Grammy Award-nominated “Gnawin’ on It” and the hit single “I Can’t Help You Now.” Souls Alike, released in 2005, featured the Grammy Award-nominated single “I Will Not Be Broken” and reminded the world that Raitt remains an artist willing to tackle what she describes as “thorny, adult themes”—in other words, the stuff of real songwriting. As testament to her powerful and enduring influence in contemporary music, in 2006 she was featured on the program VH1 Classics Decades Rock Love! Presents Bonnie Raitt and Friends, featuring Norah Jones, Ben Harper, Alison Kraus, and Keb Mo.

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