''Slipstream'' is the sixteenth studio album by

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated ...

, released in April 2012. ''

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

Magazine'' praised it as "her best album in years and one of the best of her 40-year career." Two singles were released from the album, a cover of

Gerry Rafferty Gerald Rafferty (16 April 1947– 4 January 2011) was a Scottish singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was a founding member of Stealers Wheel, whose biggest hit was " Stuck in the Middle with You" in 1973. His solo hits in th ...

's "Right Down the Line", and "Used to Rule the World", both of which charted on the Billboard Triple A chart. The album also spawned a highly successful concert tour. The Slipstream Tour was the 82nd best-selling American tour of 2012 earning 11.3 million dollars and selling 201,313 tickets.

Critical reception

The album was listed at No. 22 on

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

's list of the top 50 albums of 2012, saying "As young stars like

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...

and

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her Camp (style), campy style, she has been ...

cover her songs, Raitt continues what she’s been doing, more or less, for 40-plus years." The album won for the

Grammy Award for Best Americana Album The Grammy Award for Best Americana Album is an honor presented to recording artists for quality albums in the Americana music genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors ...

at the

2013 Grammy Awards The 55th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 10, 2013, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012. The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. E ...

Commercial performance

Debuting at No. 6 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

, ''Slipstream'' became Raitt's highest-charting album in 18 years. It also debuted at No. 1 on both the

Rock Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

and Blues Albums charts. selling around 63,000 copies. The album has sold 334,000 albums in the US as of January 2016. ''Slipstream'' became the 106th best-selling album and 9th best-selling independent album in the United States in 2012. ''Slipstream'' was also the best-selling Blues album of 2012, and Bonnie Raitt was the best-selling Blues artist of 2012.Blues Albums Artists: 2012 Year-End Charts , Billboard
/ref>

Track listing

#"Used to Rule the World" (

Randall Bramblett Randall Bramblett (born 1948) is an American musician and singer-songwriter, whose career as a solo artist, session player, and touring musician, has spanned more than three decades. He has worked with Gregg Allman, Bonnie Raitt, Goose Creek S ...

) - 4:17 #"

Right Down the Line "Right Down the Line" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Released as a single in July 1978, it reached #12 on the U.S. '' Billboard'' Hot 100 and #8 on '' Cash Box''. It was the third release from Raffe ...

" (

) - 5:29 #"Million Miles" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) - 6:26 #"You Can't Fail Me Now" (

Loudon Wainwright III Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor. He has released twenty-six studio albums, four live albums, and six compilations. Some of his best-known songs include "The Swimmin ...

, Joseph Lee Henry) - 4:18 #"Down to You" (George Marinelli, lyrics Raitt, Randall Bramblett) - 3:59 #"Take My Love with You" ( Gordon Kennedy,

Wayne Kirkpatrick Wayne Kirkpatrick (born c. 1961) is an American songwriter and musician born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated from Baton Rouge Magnet High School in 1979. His younger brother is American screenwriter ...

Kelly Price Kelly Cherelle Price (born April 4, 1973) is an American R&B and gospel singer. She started her singing career in 1992. Price originally garnered attention by singing backing vocals for Mariah Carey on multiple songs, including her ''Billboa ...

) - 4:24 #"Not Cause I Wanted To" ( Al Anderson, Bonnie Bishop) - 3:37 #"Ain't Gonna Let You Go" (Al Anderson,

Bonnie Bramlett Bonnie Bramlett (born Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell, November 8, 1944) is an American singer and occasional actress known for performing with her husband, Delaney Bramlett, as Delaney & Bonnie. She continues to sing as a solo artist. Life and career ...

) - 5:59 #"Marriage Made in Hollywood" (

Paul Brady Paul Joseph Brady (born 19 May 1947) is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. Initially popular for playing ...

Michael O'Keefe Michael O'Keefe (born Raymond Peter O'Keefe, Jr.; April 24, 1955) is an American actor, known for his roles as Danny Noonan in ''Caddyshack'', Ben Meechum in ''The Great Santini,'' for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Bes ...

) - 4:55 #"Split Decision" (Anderson, Gary Nicholson) - 4:35 #"Standing in the Doorway" (Bob Dylan) - 5:24 #"God Only Knows" (Joseph Lee Henry) - 4:26

Personnel

* Bonnie Raitt – lead vocals (1-12), electric slide guitar (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11), arrangements (2), acoustic guitar (3), tambourine (10) *

Mike Finnigan Michael Kelly Finnigan (April 26, 1945 – August 11, 2021) was an American keyboard player and vocalist, his speciality being the B3 Hammond organ. Working primarily as a freelance studio musician and touring player, he played with a wide va ...

–

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

(1, 2, 6-10), backing vocals (1),

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

(2), acoustic piano (5),

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

(5),

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptua ...

(6, 8, 9) *

Patrick Warren Patrick Warren (born March 26, 1957) is an American musician, composer, and record producer. He is known for his work on the films ''Magnolia'', ''Fifty Shades of Grey'', ''Boogie Nights'' and ''Red State'', as well as the television series '' ...

– acoustic piano (3, 11, 12), Wurlitzer electric piano (4),

pump organ The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

(7), keyboards (11, 12) *

Johnny Lee Schell Johnny Lee Schell is an American guitarist and songwriter. In the late 1960s, he first recorded with producer Norman Petty in Group Axis. In the 1970s, he joined Amarillo TX southern rock band, Baby. Since his professional debut, he has played with ...

– electric guitar (1) * George Marinelli – electric guitar (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9), harmony vocals (2, 5), acoustic guitar (6, 9), backing vocals (6),

shakers The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, are a Millenarianism, millenarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian sect founded in England and then organized in the Unit ...

(8),

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

(9) *

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...

– electric guitar (3, 4, 11) *

Greg Leisz Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Biography Leisz grew up in the garage band cu ...

– acoustic guitar (3, 4),

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

(11) * Al Anderson – acoustic guitar (6, 7, 8), lead guitar solo (7), electric guitar (10), harmony vocals (10) *

James "Hutch" Hutchinson James Hutchinson (born January 24, 1953) is an American session bassist best known for his work with Bonnie Raitt. Though his work takes him nearly everywhere he primarily resides in Studio City, Los Angeles, CA and Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii. Car ...

– bass (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10),

upright bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(7) *

David Piltch David Piltch (born January 29, 1960) is a Canadian bassist and session musician. Biography Piltch grew up in an artistic family. His father Bernie Piltch was a noted studio and stage saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist in Toronto from the ...

– upright bass (3, 4, 11) *

Ricky Fataar Ricky Fataar (born 5 September 1952) is a South African-English multi-instrumentalist of Cape Malay descent, who has performed as both a drummer and a guitarist. He gained fame as an actor in ''The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash'', a spoof on t ...

– drums (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10),

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

(2), tambourine (9, 10) *

Jay Bellerose Jay Bellerose is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session and live performance work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists. Biography Bellerose was born in Maine. A jazz enthusiast, he attended ...

– drums (3, 4, 11) *

Luis Conte Luis Conte (born 16 November 1954) is a Cuban percussionist best-known for his performances in the bands of artists including James Taylor, Madonna, Pat Metheny Group, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart and Shakira. He began ...

– percussion (1, 2, 6) * Gang – handclaps (5) *

Maia Sharp Maia Sharp is an American singer and songwriter. In addition to her solo career, she has written songs for and collaborated with several country and pop musicians including Cher, Trisha Yearwood, Terri Clark, Bonnie Raitt, Edwin McCain, and Art ...

– backing vocals (2, 6, 9), harmony vocals (7) * Jeff Young – backing vocals (6) *

– harmony vocals (9)

Production

* Producers – Bonnie Raitt (Tracks 1, 2 & 5-10 ); Joe Henry (Tracks 3, 4, 11 & 12). * Recorded and Mixed by Ryan Freeland * Second Engineer – Wesley Seidman * Various overdubs on Tracks 6, 7, 9, 10 & 12 recorded by Scott Baggett. * Mixed at Stampede Origin Studio (Culver City, CA). * Mastered by

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

at Gateway Mastering (Portland, ME). * Project Coordinator – Kathy Kane * Art Direction and Design – Norman Miller and DesignartLA.com. * Photography – Matt Mindlin * Background Photos – Norman Miller * Assistant Photography – Omar Gaieck and Chris Soule * Management – Kathy Kane, assisted by Annie Heller-Gutwillig, Chloe Monahan and Mary Skerritt. * Hair – Gunn Espegard * Make-up – Kate Lindsay

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Singles - Billboard (United States)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2012 albums Bonnie Raitt albums Albums produced by Joe Henry Grammy Award for Best Americana Album