Album: Bonnie Raitt, Slipstream (Redwing/Proper)

Everyone's favourite liberal-minded, blues-wailing Ginger Ninja doesn't make records quite as often as she used to.

So Slipstream is welcome, despite large portions of it sounding generic to the point of self-parody: funky, strolling, sunny California blues-rock with lashings of soul... That's the self-produced bit. More interesting is the small Joe Henry-produced chunk, which benefits from the ineffable touch of Bill Frisell. Now you're talking.