The Unfettered Critic – June 2022

Bonnie Raitt is coming back to the Britt stage. YAY!

Bonnie first “broke” into the public eye with her 1989 album, Nick of Time. It won three Grammy Awards, and is among the few CDs that never get re-alphabetized into our overstuffed library of the things. But before that heady experience, she’d been touring for two decades. And even earlier…

New York City, Broadway, 1945. In the spotlight—an actor described by composer Richard Rodgers as, “a big, brawny fellow with a magnificent baritone.” The actor was John Raitt, debuting in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical, Carousel. Raitt’s stage career grew, from Annie Get Your Gun, to Pajama Game. Then, in 1949, came his daughter Bonnie. She chose a different musical path, one that emphasized the blues and the sound of a slide guitar. Yet, they performed together many times, even sharing the stage in a phenomenal PBS event: Bonnie Raitt and John Raitt with the Boston Pops, 1992. What an evening!

We saw Bonnie that year at The Hollywood Bowl, but never since, even though she’s been to Oregon. We’re sure a few folks hereabouts can recall her 1996 trip to Britt Hill—memorable for a whole other reason. She and Jackson Browne headlined a concert to benefit Oregon environmental groups. The visit came just a few weeks after Bonnie and some 600 environmental activists had protested at a lumber mill in Northern California over the logging of old growth redwoods. In turn, a large group of incensed loggers, miners, and ranchers showed up in Jacksonville for Bonnie’s concert, gathering outside the Britt grounds with a cacophony of air horns, firecrackers, and buzzing chain saws.

We missed that, um… event. But we almost got to see her here in 2008, as we were settling into this peaceful valley. The weather was seasonably warm that day, Britt Festival-warm, and the windows in our home were opened wide as we moved things around, picking the perfect niche for this lamp, that chair, and lord-knows-how-many books.

And suddenly we heard… first a pounding bass drum… then a guitar seeking a level… and then that unmistakable voice, strong and gentle at once, floating up the hill, wafting through our windows on those angel-from-Montgomery wings.

Bonnie Raitt! In our town! Doing a sound check on the Britt stage!

It was, we thought, the perfect affirmation to our decision to put down roots in Jacksonville’s red clay! Sadly for us, the concert had been sold out for weeks, so we listened from our balcony, dogs at our feet, enjoying the not-too-distant strains of our favorite songs.

Now, as the world carefully unmasks, we’re reminded of a verse in one of John Raitt’s biggest hits, You’ll Never Walk Alone.

At the end of a storm,

There’s a golden sky,

And the sweet silver song of a lark.

Translation: The pandemic is subsiding, the Britt is opening, and Bonnie is singing!

But wait! There’s more! Also on the stage that night, blues and gospel singer extraordinaire Mavis Staples! Like Bonnie, she shared the stage with her father, gospel singer Roebuck “Pops” Staples, along with her brother Pervis and sisters Yvonne and Cleotha. As The Staples Singers, they recorded hits like Respect Yourself and I’ll Take You There. It was a family affair. “At night,” Mavis recalls,” after we finished our homework, rather than turn the radio on, Pops picked up the guitar and we’d all sit on the floor in a circle and he’d give us our parts.”

So, are you as psyched as we are? Think about it:

Bonnie Raitt AND Mavis Staples? That’s TWO larks.