Bonnie Raitt

Raised in Los Angeles by Quaker parents who were active in music and liberal politics (her father was Broadway musical star John Raitt), Raitt attended Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1967 to 1969 but dropped out to join the East Coast blues and folk music scene. From the start of her career, she played alongside classic blues performers such as Sippie Wallace and Arthur (“Big Boy”) Crudup as well as folk rock contemporaries such as Jackson Browne and Little Feat. Her first three albums largely comprised traditional blues material and introduced Raitt’s supple phrasing, feminist stance, and keen abilities as a slide guitarist.