How emotional was it for Bonnie Raitt at the State Fair on Thursday?

She cried during the fireworks after her show, she told me a short time later. She said it was particularly tough on Wednesday when she went on Lake Minnetonka with a bunch of friends of her older brother, Twin Cities producer Steve Raitt, who died in April of brain cancer.

 She admitted that there were a couple moments onstage Thursday where she had to summon Steve for emotional rescue to get through a poignant song. She said she’d experienced a similar type thing when her father, Broadway star John Raitt, had died and she had to sing shortly after his passing. She merely thought of him when she was overcome with emotion.

During the fair concert, Raitt gave shout outs to some of Steve’s friends, including drummer Bobby Vandell, and to her many Minnesota friends, including Willie Murphy, Tony Glover and John Koerner.

Raitt’s teaming with longtime friend but first-time tourmate Taj Mahal made the structure of the evening different. He and his band opened (loved the swinging instrumental “Seven Eleven” and when he said “Fishin’ Blues” should be the Minnesota state song), then Raitt and her band performed; Taj sat in with her on a couple of acoustic numbers and then he and his band joined her for seven songs at the end.

Here is Raitt’s set list:

Sho Do/Thing Called Love/Nick of Time/Your Good Thing Is About to End/Good Man Good Woman/Satisfied (acoustic w Taj)/Done Changed My Way of Living (w Taj)/Angel from Montgomery/I Will Not Be Broken/Something to Talk About/Love Sneakin’ Up on You/I Can’t Make You Love Me  BOTH BANDS COMBINED Tramp with Scratch My Back/She Felt Too Good/She Caught the Katy/Wah She Go Do/Love So Strong/Gnawin’ on It/ Comin’ Home

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 12:21 am and is filed under Concerts, Local, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.