Welcome to the DFH Freaky Friday weekly music series
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Bonnie Raitt is well known for her many great songs and hits over the years. Tonight, she earns a spot in the Freaky Friday series new monthly Hall of Fame feature... for not only her great musical presence but in recognition of her dedication to progressive causes.
Bonnie's really pretty bad-ass. I'm not the only one who thinks so. From the Rolling Stones' 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time:
Starting with her acoustic slide workout on 1971's "Walking Blues," Raitt rolled out a fearsome repertoire of blues licks, fingerpicking with the best and wielding a slide like an old master. Most of all, she set a crucial precedent: When guitar was still considered a man's game by many, Raitt busted down that barrier through sheer verve and skill.
She's long been one of my personal favorites, both as a singer & guitarist, for her range, her soul and her sheer tenacity.
I also admire Bonnie for her involvement on many levels as an activist. She is possibly most widely known for her activism with No Nukes from years ago. She certainly is not limited to that. See more activist-bio info here.
Her support of liberal causes has spanned decades, going back to her youth, certainly in no small part because of her family. Her father John Raitt had a long standing relationship with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and peace activism.
One of our most famous families of supporters are the entertainers (father) John and (daughter) Bonnie Raitt. Their roots in peace go back to the early 1960s, when John Raitt starred in an AFSC-produced film urging nuclear disarmament. We present these clips from "Which Way the Wind?"to show that even when things change, they remain the same.
When John Raitt, Marsha Hunt, and James Whitmore made this film almost 50 years ago, the world remembered Hiroshima and Nagasaki vividly. That memory has faded. The nuclear threat remains.
Here's a sweet 2 minute interview where Bonnie talks about her early influences:
For the curious, Bonnie's website has a special section highlighting her activism. There you'll find an extensive list of organizations and causes she supports.
Her music is always fun, heartfelt and versatile, from classic blues to soulful ballads, Bonnie never disappoints.
Her new album Slipstream is the first to be produced on her own label, Redwing Records and comes after a period of personal hiatus. It's gotten great reviews. Rolling Stone gives it 4 stars (only 4?!?):
Slipstream, her first album in seven years and the first she has self-released, is a loose and adventurous reminder of everything she does well. [...]
It's mood music with a razor edge, pain fronting as bliss, delivered by a vet who understands that the blues are often about just that.
Salon has an interview/review:
Bonnie Raitt: Thank God for Occupy
Q: You’re pretty well known for your social and political activism. What is an artist’s responsibility in that regard?
BR: I think we have responsibilities to be active in the things we believe in, regardless of what our job is. At least in my lifetime, there has been a tremendous combining of activism and music, that came up in the era of Pete Seeger and the Weavers and Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and Peter Paul & Mary. That was the music I cut my folk roots on — at 1o or 11, I would sit in my room and learn those songs. Being Quaker, my folks were involved in the peace movement and the civil rights movement. That was a very fertile time for music and politics, so by the time I was playing in clubs, it was just natural for me to play for a women’s health clinic or for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and that has dovetailed into most of the other causes that I’m involved in, whether it’s safe energy or no nukes. The whole idea of the election year being an auction instead of an election is just so abhorrent to me. Thank God for Occupy and thank God for “The Daily Show,” Colbert and the rising up that’s going on around the world. I salute all the people who are finally pissed off enough to get out in the street.
Speaking of Colbert... we get this nice treat, a guest appearance on The Colbert Show from April 16, 2012.
Heres one from the new album.
Special Note: Freaky Friday "Hall of Fame Edition" will publish on the third Friday of every month. FF Editors, well okay, me, will be happy to welcome Guest Hosts for the FF Hall Of Fame which will focus on a particular artist with strong activist leanings. It could be anyone from Pete Seeger to Tom Morello, from Woody Guthrie to Buffy St. Marie, and everything in between. Suggest more in comments! Please send me a kosmail if you'd like to author one!
So... What kind of music or who are the artists who inspire your activist self? Jump in & to tell us in comments!
It's Freaky Friday! Bring some tunes, whatever you got! Feel free to comment with just a song-link and your thoughts, or try for the embed, for however long that works for us. Either way, we're just chillin' here, so c'mon and join in.
Here's HOW: To add vids in comments: Click on "share"; then the "embed" button; change the size of the video graphic too, so when it posts, it is smaller. Use 300pixels in the custom parameters (last one on the right) under the embed code. {h/t joanneleon}
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