Stevie to play Atlantic City: August 27,2010

[Dodfather]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

I don't get the Bonnie Raitt thing. She is really not a writer. Most of her hits were written by other people. That Nick of Time album was way overrated.

I love Bonnie Raitt! She has always been a writer, although more so in recent years. She wrote arguably the 2 most successful tracks from her first two albums - Finest Lovin Man (Bonnie Raitt, 1971) and Give It Up Or Let Me Go (Give It Up, 1972) and adapted the lyrics of Love Me Like A Man from the original.

You're right though, she then didn't have as much success with her own work for the rest of the decade but she's so highly regarded as an interpeter of others work and for unearthing new writing talent. Eric Kaz, Chris Smither, Allen Touissant etc.

She has said herself that she began to write a lot more in the late 1980s (when she wasn't getting sent such great material any more) and while I agree that Nick Of Time is overrated, it does have some great tunes by her with quite daring lyrics (Nick Of Time especially) I think it was with Luck Of The Draw (1991) and Longing In Their Hearts (1994)that she really came into her own as a writer though, since both of them have more of her own compositions than previous albums. She also continues to unearth new talent (Shirley Eckhart wrote Something To Talk About, for example).

Circle Dance is from Longing In Their Hearts.

Since then, I'm pretty sure most of her albums have had at least 3 songs written by her, helping to build her a reputation as a consistent writer now that her one as an interpreter and nurturer of new talent is so established and continues alongside her newly sucvcessful role as a writer.