Bonnie Raitt is the debut album by Bonnie Raitt, released in 1971.

Background

The album was recorded at an empty summer camp on Enchanted Island, about 15 miles west of Minneapolis on Lake Minnetonka in August 1971. This location was chosen because of Raitt's close friendship with John Koerner and Dave Ray, two musicians from Minneapolis who were playing on the East Coast folk circuit. Koerner and Ray encouraged Raitt to check out Minneapolis for the location of her first recording. "We recorded live on four tracks because we wanted a more spontaneous and natural feeling in the music", Raitt wrote in the album's liner notes, "a feeling often sacrificed when the musicians know they can overdub their part on a separate track until it's perfect."

Reception

Though album sales were modest, Bonnie Raitt was warmly received by rock critics. "[A]n unusual collection of songs performed by an unusual assortment of musicians", wrote Rolling Stone. "Raitt is a folkie by history but not by aesthetic", wrote Robert Christgau in his Consumer Guide column. "She includes songs from Steve Stills, the Marvelettes, and a classic feminist blues singer named Sippie Wallace because she knows the world doesn't end with acoustic song-poems and Fred McDowell. An adult repertoire that rocks with a steady roll, and she's all of twenty-one years old."

Track listing

Side one Side two

Personnel

Production