Bonnie Raitt, ‘give It Up

Bonnie Raitt may have switched producers for her second album Give It Up, hiring Michael Cuscuna, but she hasn't switched her style, sticking with the thoroughly engaging blend of folk, blues, R&B, and Californian soft rock. If anything, she's strengthened her formula here, making the divisions between the genres nearly indistinguishable. Take the title track, for instance. It opens with a bluesy acoustic guitar before kicking into a New Orleans brass band about halfway through – and the great thing about it is that Raitt makes the switch sound natural, even inevitable, never forced. And that's just the tip of the iceberg here, since Give It Up is filled with great songs, delivered in familiar, yet always surprising, ways by Raitt and her skilled band. For those that want to pigeonhole her as a white blues singer, she delivers the lovely "Nothing Seems to Matter," a gentle mid-tempo number that's as mellow as Linda Ronstadt and far more seductive. That's the key to Give It Up: Yes, Raitt can be earthy and sexy, but she balances it with an inviting sensuality that makes the record glow.

Original Album Series album by Bonnie Raitt was released Aug 23, 2011 on the Warner Bros. label. UK-only five CD set containing a quintet of albums from the American singer/songwriter. Original Album Series songs Each album comes in a mini-LP sleeve with all housed in attractive slipcase. Original Album Series album Includes the albums Streetlights, Home Plate, Sweet Forgiveness, The Glow and Green Light…

Since Bonnie Raitt didn't score any big hits during her nine-album tenure at Warner Bros., compiling a best-of from those records is largely a matter of taste, and after Raitt's commercial breakthrough on Capitol with Nick of Time in 1989, Warners decided to trust her own taste in choosing songs for this compilation. The artist's input is usually considered a good thing, but in this case it has resulted in an idiosyncratic selection that fails to be representative or to cull the real highlights from Raitt's Warners catalog. Basically, that catalog breaks down into three sections - the first three solid albums, the second three good but uneven albums, and the last three mediocre, compromised albums. Raitt has opted to try to find at least a couple of tracks from each album, which means she necessarily slights her best work in favor of her weakest…

Bonnie Raitt enjoyed critical success and blues/folk credentials with her self-titled debut, Give It Up, and Takin' My Time. By 1975, Raitt's style began to be defined by producer Paul Rothchild. Home Plate and Sweet Forgiveness were uncomfortable overtures to commercial propositions where Raitt's persona and sense of fun got lost. Produced by Peter Asher, The Glow was released in 1979 and includes great players like Danny Kortchmar, Bill Payne, and Waddy Wachtel. During this time, sales might have been a consideration as well as Raitt's tough image. If anything, Asher accentuated Raitt's rough edges and provided his customary production polish. Like many Asher productions of the period, The Glow gets its strength from its covers. Raitt takes on "I Thank You," "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)," and "Bye Bye Baby," and struts through them all with ease. "The Boy Can't Help It" doesn't fare as well. Robert Palmer's "You're Gonna Get What's Coming" makes for a great fit. Surprisingly, her take on Jackson Browne's "Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate" doesn't dig as deep as the great original.

Homeplate takes Bonnie Raitt even further down the path toward mainstream production than the unjustly maligned Streetlights, but, ironically, it works better than its predecessor. Perhaps that's because producer Paul A. Rothchild has helped Raitt craft a record that's unapologetically pitched at the mainstream, where Streetlights often seemed to be torn between two worlds.