I’m crushed beyond words losing our beloved David Lindley. His brilliance, humor, kindness and total uniqueness will shine forever. RIP, dear friend. Thank you for the gift you will always be. My deep condolences to Joanie, Roseanne and all the family.
— Bonnie

Photo by Scott Dudelson

To celebrate International Women’s Day, our friends at WXPN in Philadelphia have put together a video playlist featuring performances from sessions they’ve produced for their wonderful World Cafe series, featuring a cool range of women artists over the past decade. I’m proud to be included with such a great group, including Lizzo, Brandi Carlile, Brittany Howard, Mitski, Janice Ian and many more. Hope you enjoy these performances, including my version of the terrific Bonnie Bishop-penned song, “Undone,“ from my Dig In Deep album, released in 2016 on my woman-owned, woman-run indie label, Redwing Records! Go women entrepreneurs!

Also not just for today, but may we continue to honor and help women and girls everywhere around the world be free of subjugation, exploitation, and the lack of opportunities and control over their lives and bodies. Freedom, respect, and justice for us all!
—Bonnie

https://xpn.org/2023/03/07/international-womens-day-wxpn-video/

By Marah Eakin

During “A Conversation With Bonnie Raitt” at the GRAMMY Museum, 13-time GRAMMY winner detailed her career trajectory, history of big-name collaborations, and how her win for Song Of The Year at this year’s GRAMMY Awards was “a total surprise.”

Read the full recap here: https://www.grammy.com/news/bonnie-raitt-in-conversation-things-to-know-grammy-museum-song-of-the-year?mc_cid=b6cfdd33d3&mc_eid=UNIQID

2023 marks the 50th Anniversary of Bonnie’s third studio album, ‘Takin’ My Time,’ Released on Warner Bros. Records in 1973, the album was produced by John Hall and features many illustrious musicians including members of the band Little Feat (Lowell George, Paul Barrere, Bill Payne) as well as Earl Palmer on drums, Taj Mahal on multiple instruments, Freebo on bass, Sam Clayton, Jim Keltner and more. The ten tracks on ‘Takin’ My Time’s reflect the crossroads of Blues, Folk, R&B, Rock and Soul that have been a signature of Bonnie’s output during her artistic career. Listen to the album here: https://lnk.to/brtakinmytime

BonnieRaitt.com Fan Community Members are invited to enter for a chance to win an exclusive copy of ‘Takin’ My Time’ on vinyl, personally addressed to the winner and signed by Bonnie! This LP is from the original Warner Bros. Records pressing and is notched as a promo copy.

Visit bonnieraitt.com/members to Join the Fan Community (it’s free!) or to Log-In (if you are already a member.) Enter the contest on the Members page (once you’ve logged in.) We will be accepting entries until March 22, 2023 at 11:59 pm EST. Good luck!

This weekend we celebrated the one year anniversary of the release of “Made Up Mind,” our first single from ‘Just Like That…’ We thought we’d share a video clip of a special workshop version of the song by its creators, The Bros. Landreth, and tag it into my own official performance video of the song for you to enjoy. You can check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/officialbonnieraitt/videos/1328637624367379

We’ve been so knocked out by the response the single got from the first day of its release, zooming to the top off the Americana charts and staying there for 6 weeks last spring. And then to have it pick up the GRAMMY® for Best Americana Performance at last month’s GRAMMY® Awards was the icing on the cake. I can’t thank Joey, Dave, their co-writer Jonathan Singleton and all the Bros. enough for creating such a killer tune that helped launch our album in such a soulful and monumental way.

I can’t wait to play on the same bill with them in a couple weeks at the legendary [tag] Bluesfest Byron Bay in Australia in April. If you haven’t checked them out, I can’t recommend their albums and live shows more highly. To check out TBL’s full workshop video for “Made Up Mind,” visit: https://youtu.be/Uqgv1HDU6lQ

Here’s what I wrote about how I got connected to the song: 

I first met the Bros. Landreth after being knocked out by their opening set at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2014. Reminded me of Little Feat and The Band—great songs, singing, and killer playing. Already a favorite in their native Canada, I knew I had to cut “Made Up Mind” the first time I heard it on [tag] The Juno Awards-winning album, Let it Lie. It has my favorite combo of soulful groove, strong melody and lyrics, and, what I love the most, Joey’s killer blues guitar. Couldn’t wait to do our own take and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

My heart is heavy hearing of the loss of our dear friend and brilliant musician, Jeff Young. It’s been a joy and an honor to get to play music with him all these years, in benefits and with Jackson Browne’s band. He was so creative and prolific, creating a steady stream of great solo albums right up to the end. He sang so beautifully on my songs “One Belief Away” and “Take My Love With You,” and had a voice, so warm and soulful, unlike any other. As wonderful a person as he was an artist. We will miss him dearly. My love and condolences go out to Susanna, Skyler and Nico and may he be resting in beautiful bliss, staying alive in our hearts always.

Photo by Lauri Reimer

I wanted to respond to the incredible outpouring of messages that have come in since my song, “Just Like That,” won the GRAMMY award last Sunday night for Song of the Year.

I’ve been so deeply moved, often to tears, reading the personal stories of hundreds of you, some of whom have had no familiarity with me or my music before I won that GRAMMY, and were curious why this song had won. After listening, many of you wrote that you were
moved to tears, even inspired to share your own heart-wrenching stories of either having your loved one’s life saved by an organ donation, or having decided at the height of the terrible shock and loss of losing a beloved, that you would donate their organs so that others could live.

These stories and your responses to my song have moved me as much as anything I can remember and I want to thank you so much for this gift. So many messages from nurses and doctors in the field involved with transplants as well as people who were tragically not able to get an organ in time to save their loved one’s life. There are messages from the family members of people who wanted their organs to be donated, but are now living with the guilt when that wish, for whatever reason, was not able to be fulfilled.. These stories run the gamut and I’m just blown open by the vulnerability and power of each of them.

I am so honored that my song and the original news story that inspired it, are eliciting such a deep emotional response for so many. The story behind the song is this: A few years ago I saw a segment on the evening TV news where they followed a woman who was meeting the man who had received her son’s heart for the first time. It was very emotional, but when he invited her to put her head on his chest and listen to her son’s heart, I just lost it. I knew after it stayed with me for weeks, that I wanted to write my own story, inspired so much by John Prine’s music and his beautiful “Angel From Montgomery,” which I’ve sung every show since hearing it in the early 70’s. I wrote about a fictional woman, Olivia Zand, torn by grief and guilt at the loss of her young son, who finds redemption and grace through the loving act of another.

May the song bring about even more awareness and motivation for more of us to support organ donation registration and infrastructure — removing obstacles that have hindered helping thousands connecting to facilitate this miraculous gift of life and help bring comfort to those suffering such tragic loss. I’ve included a link here to organdonor.gov to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor in an effort to more directly connect to and support the 104,085 men, women, and children currently on the national transplant waiting list.

Thank you all so much again for your incredible responses and sharing your beautiful stories. More than any award, fame or commercial success, knowing what my song means to so many may be the greatest gift of all.

Blessings to you,
Bonnie

P.S. To read these many responses, please visit the “Just Like That” lyric video at the following link and read the comments below the video. https://youtu.be/Skd0XR3twCA

Photo by Ken Friedman

I’m still reeling. So grateful to everyone who helped bring me to last night. Thanks to the [tag] Recording Academy members who voted for me; to all the members of our mighty [tag] Redwing Records and support team: to my band, our brilliant engineer, Ryan Freeland, and to my wonderful road crew—I thank you all for helping me get our music out to the world.

And to all the friends, family and fans who lift me up with their steady love and support.

And lastly, to [tag] John Prine and all the songwriters who keep inspiring and giving us the joy of sharing their music.
I’m just bowled over..

Love,
💜Bonnie

Read Bonnie’s Song of the Year acceptance speech and watch all three acceptance speeches below:

Oh, my gosh. Oh, I’m so surprised. I don’t know what to say. This is just an unreal moment. Thank you for honoring me, to all the academy that surrounds me with so much support and appreciates the art of songwriting as I do. I was so inspired for this song by the incredible story of the love and the grace and the generosity of someone that donates their beloved’s organs to help another person live, and the story was so simple and so beautiful for these times.

And people have been responding to the song partly because of how much I love and we all love John Prine, and that was the inspiration for the music for this song and telling a story from the inside. … I don’t write a lot of songs, but I’m so proud that you appreciate this one and what this means for me and for the rest of the songwriters. …

I would not be up here tonight if it wasn’t for the art of the great, soul-digging, hard-working people that put these songs and ideas to music. So I thank my team for helping me get this record out. And thank you so much. I’m just totally humbled. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Song of the Year “Just Like That”: https://youtu.be/4SGDteHRh4Q

Best American Roots Song “Just Like That”: https://youtu.be/XZetqbo60aA

Best Americana Performance “Made Up Mind”: https://youtu.be/s6_Ys0H8drw

Thank you all for your wonderful congratulations on my Grammy wins. l’m still processing and basking in the glow.

I want to share Sheryl’s post from yesterday where she explained the unfortunate technical glitch that marred our otherwise beautiful tribute to Christine McVie at Sunday night’s GRAMMYs show.

It was a very challenging situation, especially for such an important moment in the live broadcast. Sheryl, Mick and I were grateful to hear that the broadcast engineer caught the problem and was immediately able to switch and send the correct keyboard sound to those of you watching at home.

We were very dismayed to hear that unfortunately, those listening in the audience—our friends, peers, and fans — were hearing what we were hearing as well which was the broken keyboard playing in both the wrong key and none of the notes she was actually playing.

How Sheryl managed to play and sing anything close to the song, especially in that highly emotional, live moment, is a testament to her professionalism and artistry.

Technical problems happen, especially on live TV, but we wanted to be forthcoming about why things may have seemed off.

We were so grateful to be able to pay tribute to our beloved Christine. There will never be anyone like her and I love what Sheryl and Mick say at the bottom of her post below.

— Bonnie

Sheryl’s message:

Beautiful Christine! Last night during our Recording Academy / GRAMMYs tribute, something really strange happened. I sat down to play with Bonnie and Mick and the piano was not working right. I still cannot wrap my brain around it because I’ve never had it happen but the clock started for Mick and the first chord I played, only a couple of notes at a time would play. At one point, the piano in our ears was in a different key than what I was playing!

Thankfully, the broadcast mixer noticed something was off and switched over to the microphones. So to everyone else it sounds completely normal. But for us, the digital patch that was what we heard in our ears was CRAZY! 😩🤯

Needless to say, I was disappointed but Mick and I decided after the performance that perhaps Christine might be up there sipping champaign and giggling, having been a keyboard player herself.❤️

So happy for my friend, Bonnie though!! What a night!

“After more than fifty years in music, Bonnie Raitt is far from resting on her laurels; her latest album, “Just Like That . . .,” is nominated for four Grammy Awards this year, including Song of the Year—a category in which her competition includes Beyoncé and Adele, stars a generation younger. She talks with David Remnick about her early career in the blues clubs of Boston, and reflects on the state of the genre today.” – The New Yorker Radio Hour with David Remnick

Listen to the full conversation with Bonnie at the link in bio/here: https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/a-conversation-with-bonnie-raitt-plus-public-enemys-chuck-d