Bonnie Raitt with SIPPI WALLACE

I’m really pleased to have the chance to tell people about Sippie Wallace. She’s been my idol and my biggest influence ever since I first heard her sing. I’ve never actually met her before this weekend, so this is really a special occasion for me.

I first started to play guitar and listen to blues when I was growing up in Los Angeles. I used to go to the Ash Grove and see Lightning Hopkins, Brownie & Sonny and whoever else was coming into town.

After I moved to the Boston area to go to college, I had the opportunity to see Son House, Fred McDowell, Arthur Crudup and other bluesmen that don’t get out to the West Coast very often. I visited Skip James in Philadelphia about a year before he died, and it was just hypnotic to watch him play guitar. He was really a genius in the way that his mind worked on musical ideas.