November 8, 1949: Bonnie Raitt Is Born

On This Day: Bonnie Raitt was born on November 8, 1949. Seventy-seven years later, the anniversary offers a chance to revisit the musical education behind one of electric slide guitar’s most recognizable voices.

From a first guitar to the blues

Raitt’s official biography traces the beginning to a Stella guitar she received at eight. Hearing Blues at Newport 1963 later drew her toward blues and slide playing. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, she developed those interests in coffeehouse performances while attending Harvard/Radcliffe.

The next part of that education involved people as much as records. Her biography describes learning from Mississippi Fred McDowell, Sippie Wallace, Son House, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. By 1971, Warner Bros. had released her self-titled debut.

A personal route to slide guitar

In a 2022 Guitar World interview, Raitt recalled working out slide playing herself before she had seen someone do it in person. She described using her middle finger for the bottleneck, in contrast with Fred McDowell’s little-finger approach. She also described fingerpicking as the foundation of her guitar playing.

That is a useful starting point for guitarists revisiting her work: consider the relationship between the voice, the picked accompaniment and the slide phrases, rather than reducing her style to an equipment list. Her own account puts learning by ear and developing a personal method at the centre of the story.

Want to dig deeper into her instruments and playing? Read our Bonnie Raitt guitars and gear guide.

Bonnie Raitt performing in 1989. Photograph by Lena, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped to 16:9; photograph remains licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.