One of a handful of artists performing for decades who can still be counted on to release vital music, the iconic guitarist/singer Bonnie Raitt sounds as fresh as ever on her most recent album, “Dig in Deep.”

“If we don’t know how to do this better by now we should just be hanging it up,” says Raitt. “I’m out on the road after an album comes out and the first person I have to please is myself, so I don’t want to ever not be thrilled and interested by what’s going on on stage. I think the reason people keep coming back to see us is because we put everything we have into the show, and I put everything I have into finding great songs.”

From smoking INXS and Los Lobos covers to rousing originals, this multi-Grammy winner is firing on all cylinders, backed by one of the best bands in the business.

“It’s always a function of the best songs appealing to me at the time,” she says about “Dig in Deep.” “Basically I’ve done the same kind of mix — rock ‘n’ roll and R&B, and straight ballads and blues. There’s a wide range of things I like to cover so there’s a bunch of new songs in each genre.”

Backing Raitt on the album is her longtime touring band including Maui bassist James “Hutch” Hutchinson (who has backed her since 1983), guitarist George Marinelli (Bruce Hornsby, Ray Charles), veteran drummer Ricky Fataar (Beach Boys, Crowded House), and keyboardist Mike Finnigan (who played on Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland”).

Whatever song this esteemed artist decides to interpret she always finds a way to make it her own. Take “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” from her “Luck of the Draw” album. Included in many lists of one of the greatest songs of all time, and just inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, it’s been covered by artists from George Michael and Prince to Adele, but none equals the emotional conviction of Raitt’s version. And on “Dig in Deep,” her version of INXS’s “Need You Tonight” is even sexier and more rocking than the original.

“A lot of my songs I find from other songwriters that have done great versions,” she notes. “By the time I move a male song into my key and do it in my style it’s already pretty different. A lot of fun about what I do is to take the good parts of the arrangement and change it around to fit what I do with my guys.”

Back on her self-titled debut album, Raitt opened with a radically transformed version of Buffalo Springfield’s classic song “Bluebird.”

“At that point I didn’t have a band, it was just me and the guitar,” she recalls. “I had no intention of doing this as a living. I was just playing for myself, so I was most surprised to play these arrangements in public.”

When Raitt began making records in the early 1970s, female blues singers were common, but female blues guitarists were an extremely rare breed. B.B. King once proclaimed Raitt, an inspired, soulful slide guitarist, ”the best slide player working today.”

“I think the first time I heard slide was on those Stones’ records, ‘Little Red Rooster,’ ” she remembers. “Then, as I got turned onto the blues, I really fell in love with Muddy Waters and his style. My grandfather played Hawaiian lap steel and he put my hands on it and showed me how I could just move the silver bar across an open tuning. I could feel how easy it was to play. It always sounded like a human voice. It was so evocative and so unique, like an eerie kind of voice usually in the middle of these hellish grooves.”

During the ’70s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country. Then, in 1989, she achieved a huge hit with the album “Nick of Time,” which sold more than 6 million copies, and won three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Her following two albums, “Luck of the Draw” (1991) and “Longing in Their Hearts” (1994), were also multi-platinum sellers and Grammy winners.

Since her early days, Raitt has pursued social activism as passionately as her dedication to music. In November she traveled to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to protest the pipeline construction and perform a benefit concert with Jackson Browne.

“It was a fantastic spiritually galvanizing experience,” she enthuses. “It was a very powerful weekend to go there and play the concert with friends and reunite with so many great activists. We participated in ceremonies and prayer. It was one of the most moving, transformative experiences I’ve had in my whole life of activism. It had a power to it that was so spiritual. A lot of people there were healed personally. A lot of Native American kids were just transformed by being able to stand up like that for something. Regardless of what happens with the pipeline going forward, the coming together has set something in motion that no one will ever go back from. It was very beautiful.”

Growing up firmly believing in helping others and supporting causes, she continues: “My folks were really drawn to the idea that there was so much more engagement of the principles of easing suffering and being there for your fellow man. We’re here on the earth to give back. We’re here to promote love and ease conflict. The Quakers have had a tremendous history of standing up for nonviolence and for conflict resolution and finding God in the other no matter how odious they seem. It’s the practice of what Jesus taught and what Buddha taught and Mohammed — they all talk about respecting life and increasing love and peace between people.

“It was something we practiced. We collected money for refugees when I was a little kid, and I went to the march on Washington to stop the arms race and was active with civil rights groups and promoting ‘ban the bomb’ and all that. I grew up with that kind of giving back, and my dad did a lot of benefits and my mom played piano for him.”

At the age of 67, Raitt is also committed to keep growing creatively. “I think the fans would turn away if you were just repeating yourself and I would be bored,” she says. “I have to keep growing and I’m fascinated by all kinds of different music. Every time I hear something that thrills me whether it’s African or Celtic, or someone inspires me like Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes or Lizz Wright, one of my favorite singers, there’s so much incredible music out there, you can’t help but be inspired.”

Looking forward to returning to our island for another memorable concert, Raitt assures, “We’re excited to play for our fans on Maui again. I’ve always had such great shows and such a great time there.”

* Bonnie Raitt brings old favorites and new selections from her most recent album, “Dig in Deep,” to her show at 7 p.m. March 24 at Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s A&B Amphitheater.

The cost is $49, $69, $89, with a limited number of $129 premium seats (plus applicable fees). Tickets are available at the MACC box office, by calling 242-7469 or visiting online at www.mauiarts.org.