Singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt has been taking questions from fans and discussing (among other things) her guitar playing, the young artists she admires and the enduring success of one of her biggest hits.
In an interview with The Guardian, Raitt was asked by one reader for a guitar lesson. Specifically, they wanted to know how she gets her smooth slide tone.
“That feel is something you can’t teach - it’s something where I just listened and listened,” Raitt responded. “I taught myself guitar when I was nine, looking at the fingers of the people at my summer camp. I just played by ear, mimicking what I heard on the radio and on records. I then fell in love with slide guitar, which I first heard when I was about 14.”
Raitt goes on to say that it was when she went to college that she began to develop her own signature style.
“I switched to a Stratocaster - I got a really good deal in the middle of the night for $120 - and then a few years later, in 1972, Lowell George [of Little Feat] showed me his MXR compressor [pedal]. I’d asked him how he got the tone to last so long - whether it’s a ferocious kind of dirty sound, or a beautiful clean sound on a ballad, the compressor really squishes the sound and makes it last longer.”
Elsewhere in the Q&A, Raitt was asked if she ever gets tired of performing I Can’t Make You Love Me. The song has become a modern standard, having been covered by everyone from George Michael and Prince to Bon Iver, but it was Raitt who recorded it first.
“I never get tired of singing it,” she says, before adding: “I’m very grateful that they [songwriters Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin] sent the song to me first.”
Asked to name some contemporary artists who inspire her, Raitt replied: “Lola Young’s Messy is one of the greatest things I’ve heard in years. I’ve always loved Jason Isbell - he’s got an incredible new album out. Janelle Monáe, Chance the Rapper, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar - they are putting issues out in a way that is so important to showcase, as well as just great music: inventive and brilliant on every level.”
Raitt also rates Olivia Rodrigo - “her songs are killer” - and describes HER as “a great guitar player and songwriter”.
Taking things back a bit, Raitt was also asked which (if any) Bob Dylan record showed her the way when she was just starting out.
“The Times They Are A-Changin’ album was the one that set me on a course,” she says. “I loved and I learned every one of those songs so I could play them in my room just for myself.”
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