It’s always a little odd seeing a musical artist being honored by having other performers sing tunes they were known for but didn’t write. I suppose that’s true of many vocalists, including two other recent Kennedy Center honorees, Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight, who didn’t compose any of their most famous hits.
Come to think of it, the same would apply to actors who didn’t write the dialogue for their movies and television shows. And we can toss in most classical musicians and opera singers, too.
But in Bonnie Raitt’s case, she’s more than just a singer. BB King called her the best slide guitarist he’d ever heard. She’s an activist, putting her weight behind more causes than I can list. She’s a musical historian who championed the work of blues greats who came before her. And she’s served as a musical role model for the generation that follows her (e.g. Tedeschi, Beth Hart, and Samantha Fish).
All of that added up to her becoming a Kennedy Center Honoree earlier this month. In the ceremony televised on CBS Sunday night, the highlight was Sheryl Crow playing piano while Brandi Carlisle sang a beautiful rendition of another tune Bonnie famously covered, “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin…