Bonnie Raitt
August 26, 2025
Mohegan Sun Arena
Bonnie Raitt and her band played to a full house at The Mohegan Sun arena on August 26, 2025. Her memorable style and soulfully emotional voice were spot on, and the audience appreciated it.
Raitt in the course of her career has been awarded an amazing number of awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Has received the Icon Award from the Billboard Women in Music Awards and the MusiCares Person of the Year Award from The Recording Academy. In 2024, she was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honor. Those are some of the most notable of the many awards she has received in her career.
Raitt spoke of her history here in the New England area and remembered playing at the famed historic Shaboo Inn. During the early 1970s, The Shaboo hosted many up-and-coming artists from rock, R&B, Blues, and all sorts of backgrounds. It was a small place in Willimantic that hosted big talent. Many like Raitt, Aerosmith and others cut their teeth on Shaboo and went on to become legends of the music scene.
Raitts was backed up by her band, consisting of musicians who are all accomplished artists and have been playing with Raitts for years. There is Duke Levine on guitar, James Hutchinson on bass, keyboards was Glenn Patscha and Ricky Fataar was on drums. They, like Raitts, were totally professional and meshed wonderfully.
Early in the evening, Raitt spoke of John Prine and her admiration for him and the musical contributions he made during his lifetime. She sang her cover of Prine’s song “Angel From Montgomery.” She said her style was influenced by him and other singers early on in her career.
They performed a slice of songs from many of her numerous albums. Raitts voice was solid, and at 75 she has not wavered in her ability to play, sing and communicate with an audience on a very down to earth level that has never changed over the years. She had her idols and influences and did her best to honor them with songs. Raitt has such a recognizable voice, and this voice and style and it suits her perfectly. Just the right amount of tough, tender and a touch of funky blues.
After over 50 years of performing, she is still engaged and concerned. The touring life seems to agree with her. She uses her fame to support various causes and I don’t see any signs of her slowing down or stopping. Her live performance exceeded my expectations. Raitt has a talent for taking the songs she started singing on stage years ago and keeping them fresh. I will absolutely see her perform again if I get the chance.
Jimmie Vaughan and The Tilt-A-Whirl band were The Special Guest band for Mohegan Sun and got the evening going with a set of blues-tinged sound. The Texas-based Vaughan is a well-known guitar player and blues singer who was accompanied by the excellent Tilt-A-Whirl band, which included an awesome brass section. Each of the brass players got their moment to shine during their set. The first song or two would have fit well in a New York club with smoke wafting back in the 1960s. It had almost a Duke Ellington feel. Jimmie Vaughan showed his abilities with his guitar by playing part of their song “The Crawl” with the guitar over his head backwards and never missing a note. It takes practice and extreme confidence in your abilities to pull this off in front of an arena full of fans watching your every move. He did it flawlessly.
In my opinion, there was only one downside to the concert. Raitt asked that all phones be put away and for the audience to be present in the moment and enjoy the concert. I understand the premise, but the request was backed up by Mohegan staff, ushers and security going through the audience, up and down the stairs moving back and forth and around through the audience constantly during the entire concert asking for phones to be shut off when they spotted one. The staff and security shining their flashlights at the offenders or getting their attention even if they were in the middle of a section was constant and annoying. You could hear and see staff communicating during the entire concert pointing out people then moving through the arena to catch offenders. Maybe at a small venue this is doable. But with a 10,000 seat arena the phone policing itself was a constant distraction for concert attendees. I have been to many concerts where an announcement was made prior and then let adults decide if they should put them away and most just want to catch a short few second clip of a favorite song. The zero tolerance approach seemed to cause more disruption to the overall experience than just allowing phones.
For more information about Bonnie Raitt and her upcoming tour dates, please visit Bonnie Raitt
Review By Donna Erichsen
Setlist:
I Sho Do (The Bluerunners cover)
Right Down the Line (Gerry Rafferty cover)
Thing Called Love (John Hiatt cover)
Your Good Thing (Mable John cover)
Help Me, Lord (Oliver Mtukudzi cover)
Million Miles (Bob Dylan cover)
Just Like That
Something to Talk About (Shirley Eikhard cover)
Love Letter (Bonnie Hayes cover)
Nick of Time
Angel From Montgomery (John Prine cover)
Livin’ for the Ones
Little Bird (Annie Lennox cover)
Encore:
I Can’t Make You Love Me (Mike Reid cover)
The Pleasure Is All Mine
(with Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-A-Whirl Band)
Boom-Bapa-Boom
(with Jimmie Vaughan & The Tilt-A-Whirl Band)