| Featuring a diverse and eclectic range
of material and some of the best performances of her recording career, Bonnie
Raitt's 1973 album Takin My Time is an evocative tour de force from one
of contemporary music's most inventive and influential performers. Featuring
songs by Mose Allison, Jackson Browne, Randy Newman and blues legend Fred
McDowell, Takin My Time also boasts an all-star musical lineup which includes
Taj Mahal and various members of Little Feat. Born and raised in Los Angeles,
Bonnie Raitt grew up in a vibrantly musical family. Her father, Broadway
singing star John Raitt, was an avid music collector and by age 12 his daughter
was already picking out songs on the guitar, demonstrating an early affinity
for the blues. It was an affinity that carried on through her college years
at Radcliffe, where she played regularly in campus clubs and coffee houses.
In 1969 Raitt left school to pursue a musical career. Playing with such
artists as Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi Fred MeDowell and Sippie Wallace, she
quickly garnered a glowing reputation on the East Coast folk and blues circuit.
A year later she recorded her debut album, Bonnie
Raitt, for Warner Bros. Records, cutting material by Wallace, Stephen
Stills and Paul Seibel. Raitt's wide-ranging musical tastes were also reflected
on her second LP, 1972's Give
It Up. Dividing her time between touring and recording, Raitt established
herself as both a polished performer and promising songwriter. Her instrumental
abilities also set her apart: in addition to piano and electric guitar,
she was one of the few women at the time to master bottleneck guitar playing.
Early in 1973, Raitt returned to the studio with producer John Hall to record
her third LP. A full complement of friends and session musicians included
Little Feat's Lowell George, Bill Payne and Paul Barrere, drummer Jim Keltner,
sax master Ernie Watts, fretless bass virtuoso Freebo and Taj Mahal on guitar,
harp and backing vocals. Ranging stylistically from the calypso of "Wah
She Go Do," to the pure blues of the Fred McDowell medley "Write
Me A Few Of Your Lines/ Kokemo Blues," Takin My Time also spotlights
material from such promising young tunesmiths as Eric Kaz ("Cry Like
A Rainstorm"), Randy Newman ("Guilty") and Jackson Browne
("I Thought I Was A Child"). |
Plattentipp 
