Nick of Time is the watershed moment in Bonnie Raitt's recording career, the sound of a survivor finding new focus and purpose in her art after nearly 20 years of generally superb, commercially underachieving recordings. An exquisite interpretive singer and formidable guitarist who'd long ago honed her bluesy chops, Raitt raised the stakes by mixing the usual gourmet spread of smart cover choices with her own candid songs--and she knocked one over the fence with the opening track, the album's title song and a moving confession of a boomer's anxieties about age, death, and the impermanence of love. "Nick of Time" catapulted a feisty rock tomboy into a new station that made her as admired by female fans as the stage door johnnies who'd long loved her rock technique, and she covered the bet with other outside songs from John Hiatt ("Thing Called Love"), Bonnie Hayes ("Love Letter," "Have a Heart"), and Jerry L. Williams ("Real Man") that resonated with her persona as a tough, smart, but ultimately tender woman. --Sam Sutherland
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