Bonnie Raitt rocks at Paso Robles concert

On Sept. 23, as sunset faded into indigo, star-studded night, the beautifully warm weather and early-autumn ambiance foreshadowed a great night of music at Vina Robles Amphitheatre at Paso Robles.

Richard Thompson took the stage first and proved just how talented he is as a guitarist and songwriter.

Thompson, who’s worked with Bonnie Raitt many times throughout the years, is joining her on her Dig in Deep tour that began in March and wraps up in November. His virtuosity was apparent from the start of his set.

By the time Thompson played his hit song “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” about midway through his performance, the crowd was captivated. He introduced the song, which is about a tragic couple brought together by a motorcycle, as a story about a three-way relationship — his tongue firmly in cheek.

For me, the highlight of Thompson’s show was his performance of the song “Fergus Laing,” a thinly-veiled criticism of Donald Trump’s golf/real estate developments in Scotland.

The song had the audience on its feet with these lyrics: “Fergus he builds and builds/ Yet small is his erection/ Fergus has a fine head of hair/ When the wind’s in the right direction.”

Thompson has a poet’s way with words that is brilliant, and a wry sense of humor, both of which accentuate his fine guitar stylings. He is intense and passionate and one of the finest musicians ever born.

But the evening truly belonged to Raitt.

Raitt is like the title character in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”; her bandmates seem to age, but she apparently does not.

Backed by her longtime touring band — George Marinelli on guitar, James “Hutch” Hutchinson on bass, Ricky Fataar on drums and Mike Finnigan on keyboards — the blues rocker played songs old and new.

There’s still no one who is better at slide guitar and blues than Raitt.

Can a woman really play guitar that sounds that good? Absolutely. She’s a consummate professional.

Raitt said it was a special evening for her because a large group of friends she’s known since high school made the trip from Los Angeles to see her perform in Paso Robles. That may be why she chose to perform a couple of her oldest songs: “Love Me like a Man” from her 1972 album “Give It Up” and “I Feel the Same” from “Takin’ My Time,” released in 1973.

The first song is a Chris Smither blues classic about — what else? — a woman searching for a man to love. After almost 45 years, Raitt still sings it as though she’s reaching into the very bottom of her soul to pull the words out: “I want a man to rock me/ Like my back bone was his own/ Darlin’, I know you can.”

The next song featured some of that awesome slide guitar work we’ve come to love from Raitt. On “I Feel the Same,” another Smither original, she and Marinelli did a guitar dueling duet, matching riff for riff.

She also covered a Los Lobos song, “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes,” taking the opportunity to comment on the fact Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant is built near fault lines. Needless to say, the lifelong opponent of nuclear power is happy that the plant is scheduled to close in 2025.

Another song Raitt has covered many times is John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery,” and she turned in a beautifully nuanced version of it on Friday night. It’s amazing she can still put passion and emotion into a song she’s done hundreds — maybe thousands — of times.

At one point, Thompson returned to the stage to join Raitt on “Not the Only One” from her 1991 album “Luck of the Draw” — picking up an electric guitar for the first time that evening. Then together they played Thompson’s “Dimming of the Day,” which Raitt said was possibly the most beautiful song ever written. They are clearly kindred souls, having known each other and played together since the early 1970s.

For someone who’s been playing and performing for nearly 50 years, Raitt’s voice is as clear and as powerful as ever. She hits the strong high notes as well as the soft subtle nuances filled with emotion in every song. It seems as though she’s just getting better with age.

After a set that lasted nearly two hours, the audience would not let Raitt leave without an encore and she did not disappoint. She did a heartbreakingly tender rendition of “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” again from “Luck of the Draw” — a song that can bring tears to my eyes. When she went into “Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes,” she told the audience they could bring out their phones for photos — something that was prohibited at the venue until that point. Most people took her up on the offer.

I’ve seen Bonnie Raitt perform several times previously, but it’s been at least 10 years since the last time, so I was wondering how she’d hold up.

Her relaxed onstage persona, her guitar mastery and her soaring vocals proved to me, that in fact, she’s held up quite well. Her set was paced beautifully and she was gracious to her audience and very appreciative of all the love she received from them.

All in all, it was a phenomenal show.

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Bonnie Raitt rocks at Paso Robles concert."