Stevie Ray Vaughan

Great Guitarists #17: Bonnie Raitt

Great Guitarists

Now more than ever, the world is a busy place. In the age of social media and being reachable in one form or another virtually anywhere in the world, we find our time is filled up with ever-newer demands on our attention. Yet classic musical genres like the Blues remain a steady fixture, especially in the guitar-o-sphere, be it as the rediscovery of BB King and his compatriots by each new generation, or the influence of blues guitar in the apparent resurgence of the guitar solo in modern chart music.

I’ve certainly had a busy summer, although in my case it was a few months full of gigs, including in some new and interesting locations (which I will tell you about in an upcoming post). But now things have settled back into something resembling a normal routine – or as normal as any freelancer’s life can ever be – it’s time I returned to the Great Guitarists series, and returned to the Blues. This time, we’re sticking with the Blues to honour one of the greatest slide guitar players in the history of guitar: Bonnie Lynn Raitt…

Raitt performing live in the 1975 (l) & 2012 (r)

Born in California in late 1949 to a musical family, Raitt first picked up the guitar at the age of eight and continued learning songs throughout her teens. She gravitated to a slide guitar technique early on, although she still viewed music as a hobby while going to study Social Relations and African Studies at University (that’s college for American readers). Indeed, she planned to work in Africa after graduating, but a road trip to Philadelphia and some early gigs backing Mississippi Fred McDowell started Raitt on the path towards a career in music which has seen her win fifteen Grammy Awards and become one of the very few elder stateswomen of the Blues.

Her eponymous debut album was released in 1971 to critical acclaim at a time when women generally weren’t praised for the guitar playing. Following a tradition set out at the very start of Rock’n’Roll by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Raitt’s playing earned the respect of her peers, and wider public recognition followed in 1977, with the commercial breakthrough of her sixth studio record, Sweet Forgiveness. Since then, despite periods where she’s taken time out to deal with addition health and personal issues, Raitt has maintained a steady release of records and continues to perform and record to this day.

Slide technique

Raitt learned about “bottleneck” playing from old blues records, and started with a glass bottle, inspired by slide legend Duane Allman. She has admitted her technique is a little unorthodox, since she wears her slide in her middle finger, rather than the little or ring fingers, which is far more typical.

However, being able to hold her slide between two stringer fingers gives her an element of control that’s sometimes lacking in the majority of slide players who prefer to wear their slides on their ring or little fingers. Also, Raitt is always precise with her movements during her solos. Although the middle finger is a rare choice, it is something Raitt has in common with Joe Walsh (James Gang, The Eagles) and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), which is rather good company for her (and me, another middle finger slide-ist) to be amongst!

Equipment

Raitt can be seen in pictures with a variety of guitars, but her most famous tone comes from a Fender Stratocaster she bought in 1969. The single coil pickups help the biting tone of her slide playing to cut through more clearly. She also plays a Gibson E-175 on occasion, and seems to favour Guild acoustic guitars. Amplification can vary, but Raitt appears to use Black Cat combos more often than not on tour, and for added bite, usually has a Rat distortion pedal in her armoury.

Her preferred tuning is Open A (low to high: E, A, E, A, C#, E), which is simply the more common Open G, raised by a whole tone – so if you (like me) often keep a guitar tuned to Open G for slide work (or bashing out Keith Richards style open-tuned riffs), a capo on the 2nd fret saves you having to retune (and intonate) your guitar.

Raitt with her main Fender Stratocaster.

Recommended listening

You have eighteen of Raitt’s studio albums to choose from over her five decade long career, and they each have something to offer in terms of excellent slide guitar tone and a melody-focused soloing approach. As well as previously mentioned successes such as Sweet Forgiveness (1977) her 1971 debut and its follow-up, 1972’s Give It Up, Raitt’s fans rate 1989’s Nick Of Time and Luck Of The Draw (1991) as great showcases of her guitar and vocal talents. Raitt has also appeared as a session musician, performing guitar or backing vocals on records by a range of artists, from Roy Orbison, Aretha Franklin and Bruce Hornsby to Little Feat, The Pointer Sisters, and many more…

It’s also worth highlighting her numerous guest appearances with other Blues greats, from Mississippi Fred McDowell and John Lee Hooker to her fantastic rendition of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Pride and Joy at the tribute concert in his honour (after his tragic death) recorded in Austin, Texas in 1995, alongside BB King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Dr John and Stevie’s brother Jimmy Vaughan.

Final thoughts

I’ve long admired Raitt, not only for her slide guitar playing, but for her social conscience and lifelong activism, using her voice to speak out about global and environmental issues throughout her career. I also recognise how hard it is to take sabbaticals form the music industry, where the fear of being forgotten, dropped by a record label, and therefore at risk of losing one’s income has driven countless musicians to an early grave. Yet Raitt is on record for speaking about taking time out in the 1980s to properly deal with her alcohol and substance addictions, as well as taking time to properly grieve following family bereavements. This is a good example of taking time for oneself, not just to survive, but to thrive – something too many of us can struggle to do, and indeed be made to feel guilty for.

In this increasingly busy and high-pressured world, perhaps we should all be a bit more like Bonnie Raitt by taking more time to heal when we need it, and keeping our unique voices ringing out about to speak up when it matters – both creatively and socially.

Great Guitarists #13: Albert King

Great Guitarists

Albert Nelson (1923-1992) is one of the most influential blues guitar players of the mid-29th century, at the height of the Blues’ electric period, and one of the early exponents of the modern blues. But you probably know him better by his stage name, Albert King.

He took the stage moniker of King due to the success of another popular blues guitarist, B.B. King. In fact, it is believed he even passed himself off as a cousin of B.B.’s early in his career in order to raise his profile and get more gigs!

Despite the somewhat cheeky start, both B.B. and Albert, together with Freddie King (also no relation to either of the other two), are now.often referred to collectively as The Three Kings of the Blues, given their enormous influence on countless guitar players both in the next generation of players and among their contemporaries.

Breakthrough Success

King had played with other artists (including as a drummer for Blues Legend Jimmy Reed, for a brief time) as well as leading his own band on the blues club circuit in Illinois in the USA. However, it wasn’t until he moved to Memphis and signed to Stax Records that he started to have a successful run of single releases. King believed that it was his decision to play blues songs in an upbeat, soul-based style which proved crucial to his success. He recorded with the Stax House band, Brooker T and the MGs (featuring none other than Steve Cropper on rhythm guitar), as well the Memphis Horns. Stax singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes also contributed piano to the sessions alongside organist Brooker T. Jones.

Eleven of the Stax singles, recorded over five seasons from March 1966 to June 1967, were complied and released as the album Born Under a Bad Sign in 1967. The album became a reference point for guitar players such as Eric Clapton, and the title track from the album became King’s signature song (also covered by Clapton with his late sixties blues-rock supergroup Cream).

King performing live across the years.

Unorthodox technique

Albert King was known as the “Velvet Bulldozer” due to his soulful voice, which contrasted his large physical frame (standing 6’4″ tall). He was left-handed but opted to play a (standard) right-handed guitar upside down. The guitar he is most associated with is Gibson’s Flying V (see pictures), or custom-built guitars based on this model. It’s unusual ‘V’ shape made it much easier to play left-handed without anything getting in the way (Hendrix occasionally used one too, likely for the same reason). King strung his guitars the opposite way to the ‘standard’ layout, with the thinnest/highest sounding string at the top – he was literally playing a ‘standard’ guitar upside down.

Another ‘upside down’ element to King’s technique can be found in the way he bends his notes. His large hands bent the strings by pulling them downwards, towards the floor. Some players (like Jeff Beck, I believe) have remarked on this, saying it allows for greater control of the pitch. In King’s case, he was able to raise the pitch by over two tones of he wanted to. He was also able to comfortably bend several strings at once, a technique much-copied since.

King’s unique style has been identified as a key element in the playing styles of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Mike Bloomfield and in particular, Stevie Ray Vaughan, who cited King as his primary influence.

King largely played on the three highest-sounding strings of his guitars, usually playing variations on the same musical phrases. But it was the numerous different ways that he was able to phrase the same simple blues licks; his huge string bends; and the harsh, stinging ‘attack’ he utilised in his playing, which gave King his unique sound.

King with Stevie Ray Vaughan (left) recording the In Session TV special/album (1983).

Guitar Tuning

There remains to this day an ongoing debate about how exactly King tuned his guitar – yet another unorthodox element to his style. Rather than use the standard guitar tuning (low to high: EADGBE), King made use of a more unusual tuning, believed to be either (low to high): CBEF#BE (according to Steve Cropper, who recorded with King and produced some of his records), or CFCFAD (according to Dan Erlewine, who built custom guitars for King later in his career). He may have switched between both options and others.

In either case, since King only played lead, he did not have to contend with the difficult chord shaped these tunings would have thrown up. It is likely he found them useful for easily finding his root note and being able to execute his particular repertoire of blues licks across a greater range of the fretboard.

Recommended listening

Aside from Born Under a Bad Sign (1967), I’d suggest checking out King’s love album Live Wire / Blues Power (1969), which features cuts taken from a three-night stint at the Filmore West.

Also worth listening to is In Session, the audio record of a TV special from 1983, but only released in 1999. In Session is a collaboration between King, who leads processing as the ‘old master’ and the then up-and-coming blues guitar superstar (and Albert King disciple) Stevie Ray Vaughan. As well as hearing both guitar players trade licks, the record also includes a few brief moments of ‘chat’ between the two which adds to the atmosphere of the project.

Left to right: King, B.B. King, Eric Clapton & Stevie Ray Vaughan sharing a joke backstage.

If you are looking to learn how to get the most out of less in your lead guitar playing, you could do far worse than listen to King’s sharp but tasteful playing. As always, let me know what you think, and keep an eye out for future articles on the other two ‘Kings of the Blues’, coming very soon…