Album Sould Alike

Souls Alike

Released: September 13, 2005

Produced by Bonnie Raitt

Co-produced by Tchad Blake
(P) (C) 2005 Capitol Records

1. I Will Not Be Broken (3:38)

2. God Was In The Water (5:15)

3. Love On One Condition (3:41)

4. So Close (3:19)

5. Trinkets (4:57)

6. Crooked Crown (3:47)

7. Unnecessarily Mercenary (3:47)

8. I Don't Want Anything To Change (4:26)

9. Deep Water (3:55)

10. Two Lights In The Nighttime (4:14)

11. The Bed I Made (4:58)

Bonnie: Vocals & Slide Guitar, Acoustic Guitar on I Don’t Want Anything to Change

THE BAND:
Jon Cleary: Wurlitzer, B3, Piano, Backing Vocals (Deep Water, Unnecessarily Mercenary, Love On One Condition, So Close), Second Rhythm Guitar (Love On One Condition)

James “Hutch” Hutchinson: Bass (except on Deep Water)

Ricky Fataar: Drums, Percussion

George Marinelli: Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Backing Vocals (Two Lights in the Nighttime, So Close)

Additional musicians:
 Mitchell Froom: Minimoog (I Will Not Be Broken), Rhodes (God Was In The Water), Dolceola (So Close), B3 (I Don’t Want Anything To Change), Orchestron (Deep Water), Penny Osley (The Bed I Made), Add’l Wurlitzer (Crooked Crown)
 Maia Sharp: Backing Vocals (Crooked Crown, I Will Not Be Broken, God Was In The Water,) Piano (Crooked Crown,) Soprano and Tenor Sax (The Bed I Made), Baritone Sax (Crooked Crown)
 Arnold McCuller: Backing Vocals (Unnecessarily Mercenary, Trinkets, Deep Water, I Will Not Be Broken)
 Sweet Pea Atkinson: Backing Vocals (Trinkets, Unnecessarily Mercenary)
 John Capek: Loops for Drums, Percussion, Bass, Piano and Strings on Deep Water (Bonnie, George, Jon and Ricky played as well)
 David Batteau: Guitar Synth on Crooked Crown

I WILL NOT BE BROKEN
(GORDON KENNEDY/WAYNE KIRKPATRICK/TOMMY SIMS)

© 2005 UNIVERSAL MUSIC CORP./BOCUT SONGS (ASCAP)/BMG SONGS (ASCAP)/BASES LOADED MUSIC (ASCAP)/TOMMY SIMS MUSIC (ASCAP)/WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. (BMI) & SELL THE COW MUSIC (BMI) ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF BO CUT SONGS CONTROLLED AND ADMINISTERED BY UNIVERSAL MUSIC CORP. ALL RIGHTS FOR THE U.S. ON BEHALF OF TOMMY SIMS MUSIC (ASCAP) AND BASES LOADED MUSIC (ASCAP) ADMINISTERED BY BMG SONGS, A DIVISION OF BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING NA, INC. (ASCAP). ALL RIGHTS ON BEHALF OF WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. AND SELL THE COW MUSIC ADMINISTERED BY WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

GOD WAS IN THE WATER

(RANDALL BRAMBLETT/DAVIS CAUSEY)

© 2001 BLUE CEILING MUSIC (BMI)/LAST HOUSE MUSIC (BMI)

LOVE ON ONE CONDITION

(JON CLEARY)

© 2005 FHQ ENTERTAINMENT, INC. (BMI)

SO CLOSE

(TONY ARATA/GEORGE MARINELLI/PETE WASNER)

© 2005 TONY ARATA MUSIC/MAYCOMB COUNTY MUSIC (ASCAP)/LAPIOTROPE MUSIC/BRIGHT LIKE THE SUN MUSIC/UNCLE PETE MUSIC (BMI)

TRINKETS

(EMORY JOSEPH)

© 2002 CAPSAICIN MUSIC (BMI). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

CROOKED CROWN
(MAIA SHARP/DAVID BATTEAU)

© 1998 LITTLE SHARPSTER MUSIC (BMI)/DOWN INTO EGYPT (BMI)/MUSIC PIECES PUBLISHING (BMI). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

UNNECESSARILY MERCENARY

(JON CLEARY)

© 1999 FHQ ENTERTAINMENT, INC. (BMI). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

I DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO CHANGE

(MAIA SHARP/LIZ ROSE/STEPHANIE CHAPMAN)

© 2004 CROOKED CROWN MUSIC (BMI)/HILLSBORO VALLEY SONGS/SONY/ATV TIMBER PUBLISHING (SESAC)/CAKE TAKER MUSIC/SONY/ATV TREE PUBLISHING (BMI). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

DEEP WATER

(JOHN CAPEK/MARC JORDAN)

© 2005 KAISONGS (SOCAN)/WB MUSIC CORP./RHYTHM FISH MUSIC (ASCAP). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

TWO LIGHTS IN THE NIGHTTIME

(LEE CLAYTON/PAT MCLAUGHLIN)

© 1992 TENNESSEE FIRE MUSIC (BMI)/SONY/ATV TREE PUBLISHING/FRANKLY SCARLETT MUSIC (BMI). ALL RIGHTS FOR FRANKLY SCARLETT MUSIC ADMINISTERED BY SONY/ATV TREE PUBLISHING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

THE BED I MADE

(MAIA SHARP/DAVID BATTEAU)

© 1999 CROOKED CROWN MUSIC (BMI)/DOWN INTO EGYPT(BMI)/MUSIC PIECES PUBLISHING (BMI). ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY PERMISSION.

℗© 2005 Capitol Records, Inc.

For Bonnie Raitt, her new album, Souls Alike, represents the joining of two communities. Known throughout her career for unearthing great new songwriting talent, she has once again gathered an inspiring batch of songs from some relatively unknown artists. "A lot of my life's eureka moments came when I heard people like John Prine, Fred McDowell, or Paul Brady.” she says. "And now I've found a new crop of songwriters that I connect with just as deeply.”

In addition, there’s Raitt’s tight-knit touring band, with whom she has played for most of the last decade. "These guys are incredibly gifted in their own right," she says. "but over the last few years, we've grown into something much more than the sum of our parts. We got into something deep on my last album, Silver Lining, and I'm just knocked out by their ability to stretch and morph into whatever style I want to delve into."

Combining these forces in her first album ever to bear the credit "Produced by Bonnie Raitt," and augmented by the inspired contributions of co-producer/engineer Tchad Blake, she was truly able to push herself into new directions and new challenges on Souls Alike. "What I wanted to do with this record was really celebrate the connections with the songwriters and the other musicians I’m playing with," she says. Indeed, two of her band members, keyboardist Jon Cleary and guitarist George Marinelli, even contribute songs of their own.

The album is the eighteenth release from this Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and nine-time Grammy winner, but it reveals the spirit and excitement of a newcomer. The evidence can be heard on a song like "Crooked Crown," written by Maia Sharp and David Batteau. The swirling, circular track sounds unlike anything Raitt has ever recorded, with lyrics that are, as she says, "as edgy and twisted as the music." Equally impressive is that the version included on the album is taken from the very first rehearsal run-through of the song. "With this band, it's the first or second takes on nearly all the album," she says. "It keeps the kind of spontaneity that makes the music fresh and alive."

That daring and spark infuse all of Souls Alike. Sounds ranging from the stark fragility of "I Don’t Want Anything to Change" (written by Liz Rose, Stephanie Chapman, and Maia Sharp) to the swampy electronic loops behind John Capek and Marc Jordan’s "Deep Water" attest to Raitt's desire to grow and find new things to say. The themes tackled in "The Bed I Made" (also by Batteau and Sharp) or Randall Bramblett and Davis Causey’s "God Was in the Water" are sophisticated, adult, and complex—hardly conventional material for pop songs.

Such fearlessness may be a result of Bonnie Raitt’s experiences in recent years. After a prolonged illness, her father, Broadway legend John Raitt, passed away in early 2005; her mother, Marge Goddard, died unexpectedly from complications from Alzheimer’s just months earlier. Concurrently, Bonnie was helping support her older brother, who had contracted brain cancer—thankfully, he is now virtually cured (largely, she says, through a macrobiotic diet program). "When there was time to go listen to more songs for my record," she says, "it was a welcome relief."

The lead-off single from Souls Alike is "I Will Not Be Broken" (written by Gordon Kennedy, Wayne Kirkpatrick, and Tommy Sims, the team behind Silver Lining’s hit "I Can’t Help You Now" and Eric Clapton's "Change the World.") With its Memphis-flavored groove, it was one of the first songs chosen for the album, and its tone is a reflection of Raitt’s mindset. "There was an element of being pushed to the wall with what was going on in my personal life, my family crises—and then there was the election," she says. "So that song was like an anthem for me, and for everybody that wants to feel like they can stand up to getting pushed around."

Not that everything on the album is unfamiliar musical territory or heavy emotional lifting. There’s also the New Orleans funk of Jon Cleary’s "Unnecessarily Mercenary" and Pat McLaughlin and Lee Clayton’s irresistible shuffle "Two Lights in the Nighttime." As Raitt says, "not many
people play this kind of music anymore," adding with a grin, "it’s kind of my job to help keep it 
around."

In between albums and family matters, Bonnie kept up her customary busy schedule, doing l00 dates in the U.S. following the release of Silver Lining; spending the next two summers touring Europe and swinging through Australia and New Zealand to support the Best Of Bonnie Raitt on Capitol album, released in the fall of 2003. She also guested on numerous outside projects, helped organize benefits, and continued searching for great new material.

In 2003 she participated in Martin Scorsese's acclaimed PBS series, The Blues, performing two songs in the Wim Wenders' film, The Soul of A Man, and joining the all-star cast of Lightning In A Bottle, the live feature concert film on the Blues directed by Antoine Fuqua. She also contributed songs for two Disney movies, The Country Bears and Home On The Range.

The following year saw the release of Raitt's duets on two Grammy-winning albums (Toots & the Maytals’ True Love and Ray Charles’ Album of the Year Genius Loves Company), along with her participation as a co-headliner alongside Jackson Browne and Keb Mo' on the historic "Vote for Change" tour. 2004 also saw the release of her multi-Grammy award winning breakthrough album, Nick Of Time, remixed for surround sound, and released by Capitol Records as a DVD-Audio garnering a Grammy-nomination in the newly created category, Best Surround Sound Album. Currently, she plays guitar on a track on the new Stevie Wonder album, A Time To Love, and appears in the upcoming TV/DVD tribute; Music 101: Al Green.

She'll begin her year-long world tour for Souls Alike in September 2005, continuing the Green Highway eco-partnership she began on the Silver Lining tour promoting BioDiesel fuel, the environment, and alternative energy solutions at shows and benefits along the way. Along with championing the causes and artists she holds dear, with Souls Alike, Bonnie Raitt proves that her willingness to challenge both herself and her audience remains the key to one of rock’s finest careers.

"After this many albums and hundreds of songs," she says, "you want to find new things to say, new ways to say them. For me, one of the most exciting aspects of what I do is hearing some hidden part of myself reflected back in the songs of someone else. It's why that connection to artists we love is so deep. And then the alchemy of the band and I finding a way to make these songs our own—that's what keeps me coming back. Like prisms reflecting back on each other, we're souls alike."

“On the first of her albums that she has produced herself, Ms. Raitt wasn't frivolous. The love songs are suffused with struggle and loss, and she places existential musings, like ‘Crooked Crown,’ in low-slung grooves. But her slide guitar stays feisty, and no one is likely to argue when she sings, ‘Ain't nothing that a fighting heart won't do.’"

-- New York Times

Released: September 2005

Souls Alike

  • 1.

    I Will Not Be Broken

  • 2.

    God Was In The Water

  • 3.

    Love On One Condition

  • 4.

    So Close

  • 5.

    Trinkets

  • 6.

    Crooked Crown

  • 7.

    Unnecessarily Mercenary

  • 8.

    I Don't Want Anything To Change

  • 9.

    Deep Water

  • 10.

    Two Lights In The Nighttime

  • 11.

    The Bed I Made