Bonnie Raitt – Just Like That… – 180 Gram Teal Vinyl Record

Description

Bonnie Raitt – Just Like That… – 180 Gram Teal Vinyl Record

Bonnie Raitt has spent decades finding the human story inside a song, and Just Like That… gives that ability plenty of room. Her 2022 album brings together ten performances that move through blues, soul, roots rock, and country storytelling with the ease of musicians who know how to listen to one another. It was her first studio album since 2016's Dig in Deep, and the intervening years had given her plenty to reckon with. Loss is part of this record, but so are humor, resilience, and the pleasure of a band settling into a good groove.

Raitt produced the album herself, working with engineer Ryan Freeland during sessions in Sausalito in the summer of 2021. Bassist James Hutchinson and drummer Ricky Fataar provide the foundation, with Glenn Patscha on keyboards and Kenny Greenberg on guitar. Longtime collaborator George Marinelli also appears on Livin' for the Ones, which he co-wrote with Raitt. The playing supports the songs without sanding away their individual character. There is space for her guitar to answer a vocal line, for a keyboard part to change the mood, and for the rhythm section to give a deceptively relaxed performance real weight.

Made Up Mind opens with a song by the Bros. Landreth, an apt choice for a singer who has always made other writers' material feel personally understood. Something's Got a Hold of My Heart comes from Al Anderson, while Love So Strong connects the album to Toots and the Maytals. Raitt had hoped to record that song with Toots Hibbert; after his death in 2020, her performance became a tribute. The choices are wide-ranging, but they fit her musical vocabulary naturally. Soulful phrasing and a feel for the groove connect the songs more convincingly than any attempt to keep them inside one genre.

Four Raitt originals give the album its deepest narrative turns. The title song follows an encounter between a grieving mother and the person who received her son's heart. Down the Hall grew from a story about prison inmates caring for dying fellow prisoners. Both songs ask the listener to sit with another person's experience, allowing dignity and compassion to emerge from the particulars. Raitt has spoken about John Prine's influence on this kind of writing, and the connection makes sense: these are songs interested in people who might otherwise pass unnoticed, and in the extraordinary consequences of an act of kindness.

Just Like That… also knows when to let some air into the room. Waitin' for You to Blow uses a funk setting and a sly sense of humor to explore temptation, while Livin' for the Ones turns remembrance into a reason to keep going. Those songs belong beside the quieter stories because they come from the same willingness to face life directly. Raitt does not need to force a dramatic vocal to make the words count. Her experience is audible in the timing, the warmth, and the way a phrase can suggest more than it spells out. The result is an album with a strong emotional center and a band capable of giving every part of it the right musical setting.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Release Details

Artist

Bonnie Raitt

Album

Just Like That…

Format

180 Gram Teal Vinyl Record

Number of vinyl records

1

Original album release

2022

Label

Redwing Records

Vinyl color

Teal

Vinyl weight

180 gram

Track Listing

Made Up Mind

Something's Got a Hold of My Heart

Livin' for the Ones

Just Like That

When We Say Goodnight

Waitin' for You to Blow

Blame It on Me

Love So Strong

Here Comes Love

Down the Hall