Worth the wait: Bonnie Raitt shines in rescheduled Pittsburgh concert

Fans of Bonnie Raitt were disappointed, and probably more than a bit concerned, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer canceled her Pittsburgh concert 11 months ago to undergo surgery.

The wait was worth it.

Raitt’s rescheduled appearance, a sold-out show Monday at Heinz Hall, showed that, at age 74, she’s lost none of the vocal and instrumental prowess she’s been displaying for more than half a century.

Backed by a quartet of seasoned veterans — guitarist Duke Levine, keyboard player Glenn Patscha, bassist James “Hutch” Hutchinson and long-ago Beach Boys drummer Ricky Fataar — Raitt served up a songs in variety of styles, from rockers featuring her inimitable slide guitar to a series of heartstring-tugging ballads.

Several of the night’s selections were from her 2022 album, “Just Like That …,” including the Grammy Award-winning title track. She explained that the inspiration for the song, about a woman whose deceased son’s organ donation saves a life, came from her close friend and fellow songwriter John Prine, who died in the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Raitt covering Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” on her “Streetlights” album, and at Heinz Hall she performed a stirring rendition as a duet with Maia Sharp, who received an enthusiastic response as the evening’s opening act.

Another “Just Like That …” track — the deceptively lively “Livin’ for the Ones,” co-written by Raitt and guitarist George Marinelli — served as an overall tribute to people like Prine:

I’m livin’ for the ones who didn’t make it / Cut down through no fault of their own

Just keep ’em in mind, all the chances denied / If you ever start to bitch and moan

On a brighter note, Raitt treated the audience to her biggest hit: “Something to Talk About,” composed by Shirley Eikhard. Not only did the song reach No. 5 on the American charts, but it inspired a movie of the same name starring Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid and Robert Duvall.

While Raitt demonstrated her slide-guitar mastery for much of the show, she switched to acoustic for some of the mellower material and took a turn on keyboards for the title track to “Nick of Time,” her chart-topping 1989 album.

Among the night’s other cover versions were three from “Slipstream,” which Raitt released in 2012. Gerry Rafferty’s “Right Down the Line” was presented in a somewhat harder-edged arrangement than the original 1978 recording, and everyone had a chance to get funky on Randall Bramblett’s “Used to Rule the World.”

Bob Dylan’s “Million Miles” offered a 12-bar blues that went off the beaten path when Patscha took a grand-pianoesque solo that earned an enthusiastic audience response.

The three-song encore started on a melancholy note with Mike Reid’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and Michael McDonald’s “Matters of the Heart” before the band switched gears to close proceedings with “Burning Down the House.”

Yes, that last one would be the Talking Heads’ 1983 hit.

Having apparently made a complete recovery from last year’s medical issues, Raitt is continuing to tour in support of “Just Like That …,” with concerts recently announced for the fall. And while a trip to Pittsburgh isn’t part of that particular leg, fans can hope she returns eventually.

It will be worth the wait.