After 43 years of concerts, Bonnie Raitt could perhaps be forgiven if her rock-soul-blues hybrid had coasted into pipe'n'slippers mediocrity. Instead, the Californian may be a self-proclaimed "little ol' gal" but to the surprised delight of an already adoring Royal Albert Hall, the 63-year-old was a little ol' gal who sizzled more than she's sizzled in years.
Age has not withered a voice that encapsulates longing like few others. She wrapped herself around Not Cause I Wanted To and Angel Of Montgomery with spine-tingling intimacy. Even they were eclipsed by her signature I Can’t Make You Love Me, delivered from a stool and sounding every bit as bereft and despair-drenched as when she first tackled it in 1991. No wonder Adele’s version borrows Raitt’s arrangement and heartbroken acceptance of rejection.
But, aided by her ever-changing collection of guitars, when they upped the tempo on No Gettin’ Over You and Thing Called Love, Raitt and her band became exuberant attack dogs, while Nick Of Time showed they could groove too. Allowing keyboardist Mike Finnegan to bellow I Got News For You was the solitary miss-step, yet even that threw into sharper relief just how eyebrow-raisingly excellent Raitt had been.
