Bonnie Raitt: Silver Lining

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Kinda lost track of the great Bonnie, didn't we? Her Fundamental of four years ago rose without a trace, and you have to go back another four to find the indifferent Longing in the Hearts.

But this alternately soulful, funky and bluesy outing should have longtime followers coming back to catch another slice of the redhead who delivered a blinder of a show at the Logan Campbell Centre almost a decade ago.

Co-produced with Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake (Crowdies, Richard Thompson), and featuring her road band (which includes Jon Cleary on New Orleans-style piano), Raitt benefits from some astutely chosen songs, notably the David Gray title track with its dreamy, bluesy treatment.

There's some sexy barroom boogie on Gnawin' On It where she spars with fellow slide guitarist Roy Rogers, Monkey Business is pure bass-poppin' funk, and the closer Wounded Heart is pretty, simple and spare piano ballad.

At the centre are a couple of understated ballads (Wherever You May Be, ), and her trips to various parts of Africa have their spinoffs in a cover of Oliver Mtukudzi's Hear Me Lord, which comes coloured in Andy Abad's high-life guitar, and Back Around with guitarist Habib Koite and his band which includes calabash, balafon and talking drum.

The spirit of Little Feat's blend of blues, funky country, boogie and barrelhouse is also over this album, which opens with Cleary's Fool's Game, which sounds like direct homage, and although this sometimes comes up short in distinctiveness, it signals the return of an original.

Label: Capitol