Unlike Woodstock, Lilith and Lollapalooza, there’s no snappy label you can slap onto the multi-artist showcase that’s hitting Jones Beach tonight.
And that suits Bonnie Raitt just fine.
“It’s just a bunch of dear friends and fans of each other, getting together and playing,” explains Raitt, who’ll be performing with Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby, Shawn Colvin and seasoned guitarist and sessions man David Lindley in a month-long tour.
“The thing about naming a one-time collaboration like this is that the press and the public read too much into it,” says Raitt. “Sometimes, it’s best just to be the sum of your parts.”
Shawn Colvin, en route to a sound check, cracks, “Just call us ‘The Sensitive Ones.'”
Come to think of it, “sensitive” probably describes their sound as well as any other. And while they’ve occasionally played and recorded together, and covered one another’s songs now and then, Raitt notes they’ve never hit the road as a team the way they are now.
“Last December, Jackson, Bruce and I did some shows for Hurricane Mitch relief, and we enjoyed it so much we decided to do it again,” raspily explains Raitt from Massachusetts, where the tour kicked off Thursday night. “We invited David, who’s toured with Jackson for about 15 years, and Shawn – one of my favorite singer-songwriters of all time. It’s a great opportunity to tour together, since none of us were out promoting new albums at the time.”
What makes this outing special, adds Colvin, who’s taking her 1-year-old daughter and husband along for the ride, is that it’s more an ensemble effort than a string of solo acts.
“I’ve been part of Lilith for a while, but this is different,” says the Grammy-winning Colvin. “This is all one show – it’s one group.”
Adds Raitt: “We’re each other’s band for this – we’re actually performing and playing in different configurations.”
Among the highlights, she says, is taking turns singing the lyrics of Hornsby’s “The End of the Innocence,” the song made famous by Don Henley.
“Bruce is really the fulcrum of the tour,” says Raitt, with typical modesty. “Jackson and I play piano, but when you have someone of Bruce’s musicianship . . . well, we kind of mist over when we hear him play.”
For her part, Colvin’s pretty misty about playing with Raitt. “Bonnie’s one of my mentors,” she says. “I’ve listened to her ever since I was in high school, learned many of her songs and played them in my bar gigs. I can’t overstate how important she’s been to me.
“Everybody knows what it’s like to sing along to people’s songs when you’re in the car, and pretend you’re up there rocking with them,” says Colvin, adding gleefully, “but I get to actually do it!”
