Bonnie Raitt The Bonnie Raitt Collection

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…

Listening through Dig in Deep, Bonnie Raitt's 20th album, the entire arc of her career becomes clear. In the early '70s she insisted on recording live in the studio with her road band. Later, various producers – from Jerry Ragovoy to Peter Asher, from Don Was to T-Bone Burnett – assisted in shaping her sound, often with great commercial success: she's sold nearly 20 million records. She's learned from them all. There have been downs, but each was balanced by a rise. In 2012 she ended a seven-year silence with the poignant, powerful Slipstream, co-produced with Joe Henry and released on Redwing, her own label.