In March of 2016, Bonnie Raitt performed in Pittsburgh at the Benedum Center, and WYEP's Rosemary Welsch was lucky enough to go backstage and record an interview.
Raitt was generous with her time and thoughtful with her answers. The conversation ranged from the mechanics of recording, performing, and leading a band, to the heart, soul, and inspiration of creating a life in music. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.
Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity:
Rosemary Welsch: In February, Bonnie Raitt released "Digging Deep," her 17th studio album. The Grammy-winning artist and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame played a show at Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall last week, and I got the chance to talk with her before the show. We began by talking about the new album and her band. You have a new album called "Digging Deep," and I want to talk about the significance of the title.
Bonnie Raitt: You know, I usually pick a title if it's not from a song that lends itself to a really cool title. I pick something either from the lyrics or just something that really gives me a starting point for interviews. And "Digging Deep" is a line from the first song that I wrote the words to within music I wrote with John Cleary, my former keyboard player. And one of the lines is "Let's dig in deep." I thought it was just really apropos to talk about how deep I go with my band. I mean, whatever groove we're playing, these guys really dig in, and I do, too. And then, of course, the double meaning for the ballads, too.
Welsch: These are guys that you have known for years. At this point in time, I think it's fair to say family.
Raitt: Yeah. Band and crew. A lot of these guys have been with me over 30 years.
Welsch: So do you get to the point where there's almost like a second language when you're in the studio or you're on stage? Where there's just things that you say and you understand each other?
Raitt: Well, I do the work of finding the songs, and then I try to have ideas for arranging them, either that I'm writing or else I take someone else's tune and put it in my key and arrange it either in my head or with my guitar or the keyboards. By the time I get the guys together to rehearse, I kind of have an idea of what it means.
So after all this time, they kind of know where I'm going. But it's also a matter of discovery and listening and letting them bring what they bring to it. So it's kind of a collaboration. There's some working stuff out and some rearranging if it's going off in a direction that maybe I want to put it back in. And then, of course, on the road, it takes on its own life, and sometimes the songs morph again. But yeah, we have a real unspoken kind of sympathy for the way each other goes. And so we just leave a lot of room. We don't have to belabor it.
Welsch: You just said "listen," that you're actually listening, and musicians are listening to each other while they play, which is something that I never really thought about.
Raitt: Well, a good band, really, that's what makes music special, is that there's an ability to play together. Otherwise, you're just over there, isolated in your little spotlight, playing for yourself. Most bands that are worth going to see sound like a band.
Welsch: In this later part of your career, there was more writing that started happening. What is the impetus for that?
Raitt: For me, it was mostly that I just didn't write for the last few years because I had about ten years there where various members of my family were very ill and passed away, and I was dealing with their care and just preparing for losing them. During that time, I had two album cycles. I was recording, releasing, and touring for two years in the middle of all this illness, so it was quite stressful. So there really wasn't any place to be writing music. When I came out of a hiatus in 2010, which I took deliberately to get away from any kind of pressure and think about what I was going to do next, I was really ready to get back in the studio and we did "Slipstream," which got a great response.
Raitt: Dowd and I had co-written a song with George on that record. When he came off the tour, I had about three feels that I wanted to put in the show. One was the gospel shuffle of "What You're Doing to Me," one was that four on the floor on a Stones rocker "Come Around," and the first song on the record, "Unintended Consequence." I just wanted a new funk tune to play because we love those particular grooves. Some of them we hadn't played in a while with some new lyrics. So I had an assignment, and I was really motivated.
Welsch: It's amazing how that layers your approach to whatever it is.
Raitt: Yeah, well, real life intervenes, you know. Sometimes people write about it. Rosanne Cash wrote a beautiful record about her dad passing. Great songs come from processing those feelings. For me, the last song on this record is one of those. It just depends on whether you have time or not. I'm just as happy doing a whole record of other people's tunes. I'm not attached to who wrote them, as long as it gets the job done.
Raitt: That's an interesting point. That's probably true. I haven't thought about that either. But that's how I feel when I hear other people's songs that have touched me. There's a universality to it. That's why you love the artists you love because something in them resonates with you through their music. A great soul song, no matter what it's about, cuts deep, whether it's heartache or loss. Those are the things that hurt the most and touch the most.
Welsch: I wanted to ask you about love because so many of the songs you've done over the years are about love in one way or another. When you're 22 and approaching love, you have only what you've experienced, which tends to be fairly narrow. Then you go through your 30s and 40s, and beyond that, it means something different. As you approach what you might call a love song now, how do you approach it in a way that you wouldn't have been capable of doing when you were 22?
Raitt: I suppose there are different layers of understanding and wisdom that come from the pitfalls of things that didn't work out, and certainly great loves that you still have fondness for. It's just the layering of it, you know? It's a deepening that happens with experience. But I don't consciously think about it like, "What am I going to write about that indicates I've been through some stuff?" It just naturally comes out. The songs on this record, like "Undone," resonate as true for me, whether I was 22 or this age or 85. When you listen to love songs, they hurt the same, whether you're 17 or 77.
Raitt: I think songs like "What You're Doing to Me" and "Unintended Consequence of Love" reflect relationships that have been around the block for a while, where things have gotten stale, and you want to figure out how to regain your strength. For "What You're Doing to Me," it could happen at any point where someone just says, "I've had it. I'm better off being single." Then before you know it, someone comes along and shakes you up. That's one of the exciting things that can happen at any age.
Welsch: When you're listening to other people's music, what is it that makes you want to do a particular song?
Raitt: I wish I could put it into words. It’s one of those personal things. After this many records, I have to find new ways to say something I haven't already said, which becomes a challenge. I'm always thinking about how to frame something in a different way. For people who write all their own songs and have 30 or 40 albums, I have no idea how they do that. That's not a tool I have, but I love curating music and putting a Richard Thompson song next to a blues tune next to one of mine, next to a Jackson Browne song. I love the mixture of different styles. It’s just about putting together an album like you would a great show or a great meal. There’s a flow to it, and you learn from listening to great records and watching great shows as a kid.
Welsch: You sound like someone who still really loves what you're doing.
Raitt: That's what I want to do — something that I love.
Welsch: When you started making music, you grew up in a household where your mother was a pianist and your father was on Broadway. Here you are, this young girl, and you start finding the blues.
Raitt: Well, that was the music of our generation—folk, blues, R&B, Motown. All of that came out when I was a pre-teen. The nexus of Motown, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding coincided with Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Joan Baez at the Newport Festivals. All the college kids back east were rediscovering these legendary blues artists, and I was a little folk-mad pre-teen, soaking up every issue of "Sing Out" magazine. My older brother would bring records home from his girlfriend at college, and I just couldn't wait to hang out in Greenwich Village. That’s when I found country blues. Ray Charles, Fats Domino, and so many great R&B records were on the radio, and that’s how I fell in love with the funk
