Tribute to Bonnie Raitt (on her 70th Birthday) @ Ambrose West 11-8-2019
Featuring Best in Blues vocalist, Peggy Ratusz
“Bonnie Raitt is my number one influence. She is one of the main reasons I started singing and why I haven’t stopped since I was twelve years old.” Love Letter is a musical collaboration between some of Asheville’s finest instrumentalists coming together to help Peggy Ratusz pay tribute to the queen of bottleneck Blues. November 8th is Bonnie’s 70th birthday, which makes this show extra special.
Raitt’s legacy is broad and wide. Her incredible versatile voice crossing Blues Folk Roots Pop Rock and Soul genres has been praised and decorated. Her philanthropic, musical and revolutionary activism to help raise money for environmental causes, bring justice to disenfranchised people has made a dent. She’s helped fill gaps where traditional music education programs are leaving holes, bringing instruments and education into the minds and hands of underserved youth.
By bringing them back to the stage after extended hiatus, she helped reignite the careers of elderly and sometimes forgotten Blues artists such as these late greats: Sippy Wallace (her biggest influence), Charles Brown and Ruth Brown and more. The incredible number of artists she’s shared the stage with range from Aretha Franklin to Howlin Wolf, from Elvis Costello to Norah Jones, from Tracy Chapman to Hall and Oates, from BB King and Buddy Guy to Bryan Adams and John Prine – the list goes on and on.
“She empowers and shows women like me that we can perform into our ages and she was a forerunner, proving to all people that female players should be taken seriously. Simply put, she’s changed the face of music. And she does everything with class, vibrato, style, humor, grit and grace.”
“Every female Blues vocalist tries to capture that magic between growl and soulful melody, but she was born with the gift of a golden voice that not one of us can ever replicate, no matter how hard we try!”
Love Letter will be a powerful, exciting, nostalgic combination of some of her classic hits and Peggy’s favorites! We invite you to share in this celebration of the music and impact of this global queen of the Blues. We recommend that you purchase your tickets early, as this is sure to be another sell-out!
