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BONNIE RAITT - THE FIRST ALBUM LIVE!

January 11, 2022 – 6:00 am

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BONNIE RAITT
The First Album Live! [no label, 1CD]
Fan compilation. Various dates and venues. Mix of radio and audience recordings.

Thanks to robbiem for sharing the tracks at Dime.

robbiem noted:

Danger, Heartbreak Dead Ahead not found in my collection, replaced by Rollin’ and Tumblin’ from a particularly funky funky Meters show with Bonnie guesting.

Thanks and much appreciation for all the tapers, masterers and seeders for making this sort of thing possible.

Special thanks to goody for his fine tuning and quality control and generously offering his time to make sure this sound as goody as it can.

Goody’s edits were performed using iZotope RX 8 Advanced and Adobe Audition.

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Chris Hamel, rollingstone.com, 1972:

Bonnie Raitt’s debut album [1971] features an unusual collection of songs performed by an unusual assortment of musicians. And Bonnie is something out of the ordinary herself. She has been traveling the blues-festival circuit since 1968, playing the Boston-New York-Philadelphia folk run, since 1970. Now she has done something unusual with her first Warners album.

There are two obvious idioms on the album - rock-soul and folk-blues. A third genre consists of three estranged numbers that are joined by the mood of their rendition. In their melancholy tone, these songs are the most consistently pleasing - Paul Seibel’s countrified quickie of an incredible lyric, “Any Day Woman,” “Spider” John Koerner’s rainy-day special, “I Ain’t Blue,” and Bonnie’s simple, personal piano ballad, “Thank You.” On these tunes, Bonnie’s thin, folk-founded voice is properly suited with a minimal amount of backing. Her ability to communicate emotion and involvement is most effective here.

Comparatively, the rock-soul treatments, reminiscent of Rod Stewart’s reworking of “I’m Losing You,” are heavily produced. Bonnie capitalizes on the soulful potential of Steve Stills’ “Bluebird” and the existent groove of a former Marvelettes single, “Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead.” On these songs, the shift in emphasis goes from mood to delivery, and Bonnie succeeds best vocally on “Danger.”

There’s an inkling of her electric slide talent there, too, as she weaves around the song, using the slide as an additive agent, not a gimmick. And this is an arrangement where you’d least expect to hear bottleneck. On “Bluebird,” Bonnie’s ability to use musical cliches tastefully is exemplified by the “bum-do-wadda” chorus that is carried in a joyful, respectful vein without the cynicism that so often undercuts such maneuvers.

At times, Bonnie is a self-conscious vocalist and the tension in her voice is evident. So are the good times, struggles, exhaustion, creativity caught by this informal, somewhat bizarre recording. The weirdness of the whole affair is best summed up in the sound reproduction. When played on a low quality system at high volume or a high quality box through earphones, the results are best. It wouldn’t be surprising if that was intentional too.

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Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.

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Track 01. Bluebird 1977-07-20 6:37
Track 02. Mighty Tight Woman 2016-04-02 5:29
Track 03. Thank You 1976-05-24 4:25
Track 04. Finest Lovin’ Man 1972-02-22 4:40
Track 05. Any Day Woman 1975-05-14 3:05
Track 06. Big Road 1972-01-17 3:57
Track 07. Walking Blues 1971-08-28 3:57
Track 08. Rollin’ and Tumblin’ 1996-02-06 5:37
Track 09. Since I Fell For You 1972-12-02 3:43
Track 10. I Ain’t Blue 1992-04-21 6:07
Track 11. Women Be Wise 1974-10-21 7:06
55 mins

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