Raitt Bonnie: Just like that...

""On this record, I wanted to stretch,"" says Bonnie Raitt. ""I always want to find songs that excite me, and what"'s different this time is that I"'ve tried some styles and topics I haven"'t touched on before."" With Just Like That..., her first new album in more than six years, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Raitt continues to draw on the range of influences that have shaped her legendary career, while creating something that speaks to the circumstances and challenges of these unprecedented times. The title comes from a line in one of her new original songs (""Just like that your life can change""), which seemed especially fitting ""because there"'s never been a time that made me look around and say, "'Nobody saw this coming"'-where all of a sudden, everything shifted."" But the biggest surprises on Just Like That...are the four songs written by Raitt. ""Living for the Ones,"" co-written with her longtime guitarist George Marinelli, is a rocking dedication to the friends and family she has lost in recent years, while the sardonic ""Waitin"' for You to Blow,"" about the devil on recovery"'s shoulder, is a funk/jazz hybrid inspired by Mose Allison, Les McCann and Eddie Harris, and "'70s funk. ""There"'s something thrilling about creating something brand new out of feelings and styles that have always run so deep in me,"" she says. Two songs were inspired by real-life scenarios: ""Down the Hall"" began when Raitt read a New York Times story a few years ago about a prison hospice program, and the album"'s title track was sparked by a local news segment showing two families deeply impacted on both sides of an organ donation. ""These stories moved me deeply,"" she says. ""And in the face of so much hatred and cruelty the last few years, these examples of redemption, and people acting out of love, were healing for me, and what I wanted to focus on and write about. ""I"'ve always loved the early guitar songs of Dylan, Jackson Browne, Paul Brady, and especially John Prine,"" she adds. ""With songs like "'Angel From Montgomery"' and "'Donald and Lydia,"' John was able to just climb inside and sing these people"'s lives. With his passing last year, his inspiration meant even more in writing these two songs."" Bonnie Raitt has never felt more grateful that she can continue making music, contributing to causes, keeping her crew working, and connecting with her audience. ""I"'m really aware of how lucky I am and I feel like my responsibility is to get out there and say something fresh and new-for me and for the fans,"" she says. ""It"'s really daunting not to repeat yourself, but I have to have something to say, or I wouldn"'t put out a record.""