‘It’s not the 51st state’: Bonnie Raitt feels right at home in Canada

By Stuart Derdeyn

Bonnie Raitt is wrapping her head around what songs to put on the set lists for the coming Canadian dates of her Live 2026 Tour. One song she knows will shine in the show is Made Up Mind by Winnipeg’s The Bros. Landreth. Her take on the track from her 2022 album Just Like That earned the singer her 15th Grammy for best americana performance and has fast become a fan favourite.

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It’s not the first, or the last, hit record for her penned by a Canadian.

“My very first hit record was Something to Talk About by Shirley Eikhard from New Brunswick and my connection with the Canadian music community has always been really strong,” said Raitt. “Bryan Adams and Colin James are friends, Sarah McLachlan was kind enough to put me on Lilith Fair and I’ve long been a fan of Colin Linden and the legendary Downchild Blues Band. But let’s really talk about SCTV and Kids in the Hall, because there is nobody better than the comedians and actors who come out of Canada.”

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Like many of the songs she has covered throughout her six decades on the singer-songwriter circuit, Raitt discovered the comedy crews through friends and music business contacts. In this case, via Canuck prog rock group Rush.

“We rented Rush’s tour bus in the 1980s, and they had four hours of uninterrupted videotapes of SCTV that you really couldn’t get in America as they weren’t released commercially in that market,” she said. “I can still quote whole routines from there and still squash people on the street. I’ve never laughed so hard.”

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It’s fitting that an artist whose work tends more toward the melancholy worlds of blues and folk would find an outlet in some of this country’s zaniest comedy. But Raitt says it’s all part of what makes this country one of her favourite places to play.

Where her previous Canadian shows in support of the latest album tended toward outdoor festivals, this time Raitt and her crack band are playing indoor venues noted for their high-quality acoustics, such as Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre and Toronto’s Massey Hall, where she’ll play this August.

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“It’s a good time to be out of the States and be able to remind people that we know it’s not the 51st state, it’s Canada and it’s great,” she said. “We’ve got about 100 songs to work with and I’ve gone back through the decades to pull out some chestnuts I haven’t played in a long time. You know, I need a few tunes to cut loose on slide guitar.”

‘Slide is like being a singer‘

Those slide guitar chops are a signature of Raitt’s sound. Whether she’s really locking into a groove like I Sho Do by the Bluerunners or her soaring version of John Prine’s classic Angel From Montgomery, fans have come to expect some bit of slide brilliance to shine in every song. Raitt says she came to slide playing for one main reason.

“I get a lot of acclaim and credit for playing slide, but the truth is I never took a single lesson and learned any of the chords on guitar,” she said. “Slide is like being a singer, where you can play along with any kind of musical style and make it sound good. So, yeah, I’m going to keep it up.”

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She thinks that this universality of slide and pedal steel guitar playing is what is fuelling something of a revival of interest in the instrumental tradition in rock fuelled by greats like the late Lowell George of Little Feat fame, Duane Allman and her all-time hero, Ry Cooder. Among the younger players she cites as essential listening are Derek Trucks and Joey Landreth.

“I first caught The Bros. Landreth live on an outdoor stage in Edmonton and was completely blown away, particularly by Joey’s way of singing and playing slide together,” she said. “It’s one of the reasons I kind of pushed them to let me appear on the song Knuckles on their new album. I’m not rushing to put out a new album, but I’m always collaborating with other artists.”

One of the reasons she cites for spending more time on the road rather than in the studio is that she wants to be sure to keep her crack band, crew and team fully employed.

The group she’s bringing on the road for the coming shows includes Winnipeg keyboardist and vocalist Glenn Patscha, Boston guitarist Duke Levine, long time bassist James (Hutch) Hutchinson and drummer Ricky Fataar.

Formerly with the Beach Boys, the South African-born Fataar was also a member of the legendary The Beatles spoof rockers and “prefab four,” The Rutles. Featuring Monty Python star Eric Idle and Bonzo Doo-Dah Band guitarist Neil Innes, The Rutles’ 1978 mockumentary, All You Need Is Cash, inspired future parody band biopics such as This Is Spinal Tap and more.

Raitt says when her group tours Europe, it sometimes feels as if as many people line up for autographs from Fataar as for her.

For a list of Raitt’s tour dates, visit bonnieraitt.com/tour.

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