Bonnie Raitt plays at AVA on Friday
By Cathalena E. Burch
cburch@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.15.2008
Bonnie Raitt is one of the early modern-day girls with guitars — fierce, feisty and blessed.
Her blessings include a bluesy, unaffected voice that crosses boulevards dividing blues and rock, country and folk, pop and pop standards. Her interpretations of classic blues standards earned the redhaired singer fans who have stuck by her through the decades.
Over almost 40 years, she's teetered on the edge of superstardom and obscurity; it took her nearly 20 years before she had her breakthrough commercial hit. Her 10th album, "Nick of Time," earned three Grammy Awards in 1989, including album of the year.
She collected three more Grammys two years later with "Luck of the Draw, " scoring monster hits off the pop singles "Something to Talk About" and "I Can't Make You Love Me." Another Grammy came in 1994 for best pop album for the double-platinum "Longing in Their Hearts," driven by the hit single "Love Sneakin' Up On You."
The pinnacle of her success was her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Her musical prowess is deeply informed by her social activism, which tends to champion the little guy. She protested the Vietnam War as a student at Radcliffe College in the '60s, and in 1979 she joined musicians Graham Nash and Jackson Browne to form the anti-nuclear-power group Musicians United for Safe Energy.
She also tagged along with Browne and Don Henley for a 1988 show at Tucson's McKale Center to benefit the Sanctuary Movement, which in the 1980s helped shelter Central American refugees from American immigration officials.
Raitt, 58, also has a steadfast soft spot for the environment. Her concert Friday at Casino del Sol's AVA, her first Tucson appearance since a Centennial Hall date 10 years ago, will benefit the Center for Biological Diversity. The Tucson-based nonprofit is dedicated to protecting endangered species and wild places.
Fellow bluesman Robert Cray, who has a few Grammys of his own, shares the bill on Friday night.
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