Bonnie Raitt: Singing the Blues With Pure Soul

Bonnie Raitt knows how to walk slowly into the spotlight, and how to share it with music makers and lovers all around her. Friday at Fort Worden’s McCurdy Pavilion—a relatively small venue on her tour of the United States and Canada—she blessed the crowd with 14 songs from across her life. This concert was supposed to be a one-hour fundraiser for Centrum. It became more. 

Greeting the sold-out crowd, Centrum Executive Director Rob Birman hailed Raitt as a global ambassador, an artist who had not only added Port Townsend to her tour schedule but who also donated an autographed Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster to Centrum. The auction of the guitar brought in just under $6,000. 

Birman declared that 2026 marks Centrum's 53rd anniversary—and the point at which "Fort Worden State Park has existed for a longer period of time as an international destination for art and creativity than it did as a military base."

At this, the crowd cheered, and continued to cheer throughout the gala concert. 

Tickets to see Raitt sold out in less than half an hour last December, leaving many fans disappointed. The ending of this story was a happy one for Centrum. On Sunday night, Birman announced that the organization had set a new record in gross receipts for its 2026 gala benefit concert and dinner. 

Buoyed by Raitt's sold-out performance and a post-concert dinner for 300 guests, Centrum set a new fundraising record, raising $726,637 before expenses, to benefit its program and scholarship funds. 

At McCurdy Pavilion before Friday’s show, Birman reminded the crowd that no photography of any kind was permitted. 

“We want to enjoy a communal experience in real time,” he said.  

At last, bathed in violet light, she appeared. With her band enveloping the space in a velvet-silk patchwork of sound, Raitt swept her fans up on an emotional ride, starting with “Tangled and Dark” from 1991: “Gonna get into it, babe / Down where it's tangled and dark / Way on into it, baby,” into the hard stuff and the grace. 

Next came “Thing Called Love,” Raitt’s 1989 breakthrough hit, and then a leap forward in time to "Just Like That” from 2023. This is a song about “a woman who thought she would never have another chance at joy,” Raitt said. In this song she wrote, she tells us a story of the heart, a story about redemption and letting grace in, even after you believed it was too late. 

“In case you haven’t noticed, times are tough,” Raitt said before delivering “Hear Me Lord,”  a gospel number penned by late Zimbabwean artist Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi. The refrain is “I’m feeling low.” Effortlessly, she got the crowd to sing with her. 

“I gotta moisturize my money-maker here,” she quipped before taking a drink of water and swinging into “Something to Talk About,” another hit song released a mere 35 years ago.

Raitt cuts a slim figure—and she rules supreme as bandleader. Early in the show, she dished out the love for each of the men on stage, introducing each of them with pride in her voice: James “Hutch” Hutchinson, her bassist for 44 years; her relatively new guitarist Duke Levine, keyboardist and vocalist Glenn Patscha, and Ricky Fataar, the hat-wearing drummer from Durban, South Africa. 

Another current running through Raitt’s concert: her gratitude for being on that stage, standing on the shoulders of the American blues pioneers. She invokes another immortal inspiration: John Raitt. Her father, the Broadway star known for “The Pajama Game” and “Carousel” among many other shows, continued performing into his 80s. 

Raitt, who herself will be 77 in November, has won 13 Grammy awards including Album of the Year for “Nick of Time” and Song of the Year for “Just Like That.” She holds an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music and is a Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame inductee. At the tail end of the Biden administration in 2024, she received a Kennedy Center honor.

The crowd inside McCurdy Pavilion—and, judging from social media, the listeners in lawn chairs outside—poured waves of reciprocal gratitude back over Raitt and her band.  

“You are so beautiful,” a man bellowed from the back after her rendition of “Nick of Time.” 

Raitt placed both hands over her heart, and delivered “Angel from Montgomery,” the John Prine classic she sings nearly every time she gives a concert. I’ve seen Raitt perform nine times now. “Angel” brings tears every time.

Before Port Townsend, Raitt’s 2026 tour brought her to the Gorge, where 22,000 people roared for her and Brandi Carlile a couple of weeks ago. After her show here, she headed for Bellingham’s Mount Baker Theatre, Vancouver, B.C.’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre and Victoria’s Royal Theatre. And that’s just this week. The tour will cross Canada and do a long U.S. leg in late summer and fall.

“I hope you have a wonderful summer in paradise,” Raitt said after blowing us a kiss. That could have been the end of the show—she had played for the planned hour—but the cheering brought her back for 20 more minutes. 

The flow was rudely interrupted by someone who insisted on photographing her—even after Raitt asked them twice to stop. 

“I just want to sing for you. I don’t want to be saved for later,” she said. 

“Can you turn off that light? It’s really distracting.” 

Then Raitt rose above it all. In her encore she gave us the classic “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” Mose Allison’s “Everybody’s Cryin’ Mercy,” and—“I got one more for you!”—“Burning Down the House.” This last she dedicated to David Byrne, whose band Talking Heads made it famous, and Etta James, another blues singer who’s covered it. 

In the end, we were schooled. Raitt and her band taught us about the healing power of music, how to keep going, and how to revel in the joy of having great people around you.