Pop and Jazz Reviews : At Bowl, Raitt Connects as Rockin’ Role Model

Bonnie Raitt connects with women over 25--intellectually at least--like no other female artist right now. At her sold-out Hollywood Bowl concert on Tuesday, Raitt was a singing role model for a generation of women. Her fans don’t just like to hear her sing, they also seem to want to be like her.

Much of Raitt’s appeal to women lies in her slightly amused but no-nonsense approach to womanhood, romance and life. She’s in her early 40s and seems to be proud of it. She’s a feminist but a practical one, uplifting women without bashing men. She’s also a fearless political activist, raising money to benefit liberal causes.

Add to that the fact that she beat an alcohol and drug habit, and resurrected her fading career a few years ago with two pop-oriented albums--”Nick of Time” and “Luck of the Draw”--that have been critical and commercial successes.

Raitt brought all of these credentials with her on stage Tuesday, adding substance and power to songs like “Nick of Time,” “Real Man,” “Nobody’s Girl” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”

She used to be just a blues-struck singer, but while her passion for the blues hasn’t waned, it doesn’t dominate her material anymore--her last two albums have scored with the mainstream because she’s learned to use blues shadings to pump guts into her pop material.

Beginning with an acoustic set of older material, then winding into a section dominated by recent hit-album music backed by her exemplary band, and closing with a rousing encore featuring a melancholy duet with her father, former Broadway and movie star John Raitt, she offered a nearly two-hour show without any lulls.