Bonnie Raitt's So Cool - Live in Little Rock

by Julian Spivey

Aprille Spivey Photo

Bonnie Raitt brought her terrific voice and exceptional guitar playing to the Robinson Center in Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday, May 7, for a wonderful evening of music.

Raitt told the sold-out audience that she had been performing on the road for 54 years, which is remarkable, as she hasn’t lost a step. She sounds just as amazing live in person at 75 years old as she does on her records.

Raitt’s body of work holds a little bit of everything – blues, rock, folk, Americana and even a pop crossover or two – and she proved as much on Wednesday night.

Raitt began her 16-song set with the rocking “I Sho Do,” which she recorded on her 1994 album Longing In Their Hearts.

Throughout the evening, she would perform her most legendary hits, along with some deep cuts – some of which she told the audience she rarely played, like Paul Brady’s “Steal Your Heart Away,” which she told the crowd she wanted to practice on us with because she’d be playing it in front of Brady when she tours in his home country of Ireland next month.

One of the night’s best performances was when Raitt showed off her songwriting with “Just Like That,” the surprising Grammy Awards Song of the Year winner off her latest album, Just Like That… (2022). Raitt admitted she hasn’t done a whole lot of songwriting throughout her career, but was inspired by the incredible story songs of her good friend John Prine. It’s amazing that one of the times she writes her own stuff, it was not only this beautiful, tear-jerking song, but good enough to win the Grammy for overall Song of the Year. As a huge fan of Prine, one of the night’s highlights was her performance of his “Angel From Montgomery.” Her recording of it on 1974’s Streetlights helped bring both it and Prine to the forefront of some music lovers, who hadn’t been hip to Prine’s fantastic self-titled 1971 debut.  

Among the best blues output from Raitt’s set on Wednesday were her cover of Mabel John’s “Your Good Thing (Is About to End),” which she dedicated to the blues/R&B singer who died in 2022, and Sippie Wallace’s “Women Be Wise.” Raitt has done a lot to keep some of the lesser-known names of women blues singers alive throughout the years.

It was Raitt’s most well-known works that I found myself gravitating toward throughout the evening, as a fan of hers who isn’t all that familiar with her deeper cuts. This means performances like her John Hiatt cover, “Thing Called Love,” “Nick of Time,” and “Something to Talk About,” which nearly brought the house down, were among my favorites of the evening.

Perhaps the best performance of the entire night was her encore opener of “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” which is probably the song she’s most known for throughout her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and award-winning career. The fact that she sounds just as good now as she did on her 1991 album Luck of the Draw was jaw-dropping. It’s one of those live concert moments that anyone who witnessed won’t forget anytime soon.

Raitt finished the show with performances of Michael McDonald’s “Matters of the Heart” and “Love Sneakin’ Up on You,” incorporating a bit of Chaka Khan’s “You Got the Love” into the mix.

Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentleman opened the evening with their fascinating mixture of New Orleans funk and R&B, mostly performing tracks off their latest album, The Bywater Sessions, which dropped April 25. Among the fun performances from that album were “Zulu Coconuts,” “Boneyard,” “Fessa Longhair Boogaloo” and “Just Kissed My Baby.”