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Making Maui his home for more than a decade, James "Hutch" Hutchinson is the longest-running member of Bonnie Raitt's illustrious band. "There's nobody more versatile," says Raitt. "We love each other as brother and sister. We've grown up together. He never fails to surprise and delight me."
"She used to call me her musical ranger, as I turned her on to a lot of music," says Hutch. "I'm sort of the resident musicologist."
Playing with Raitt for 34 years, Hutch notes: "I've seen audiences getting considerably younger and I think it's because Bonnie is motivated to create new music and she doesn't live off her past successes. We're hip again. Our show is primarily newer material with a few hits. She has a need to keep growing and that's the key to success. We're out there selling shows and a lot of artists in our age group aren't."
Another key is their flexibility. "As far as genres, we're able to pull off African township and we can swing into the hills of North Carolina and play Celtic-flavored folk music," he continues. "We can play the blues and do reggae and rock like the Rolling Stones."
From his early days jamming in the Bay Area with some of San Francisco's leading lights, Hutch has performed and recorded with an extraordinary array of artists including Ringo Starr; Al Green; B.B. King; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Elton John; Willie Nelson and Stevie Nicks. Over the years he's contributed to more than 20 Grammy Award-winning records, and after Bill Wyman left the Stones, he got a call from Mick Jagger to audition for the rock icons.
As far as Raitt's latest album, the bassist says: "We pretty much rocked out. The songs have really developed now in a pretty spectacular way. I'm thrilled. We've had the same core band now for basically 25 years, and we've played millions of shows and we've all played on a lot of records and it makes a big difference. We're a real band and when we record, we record live. It's a lost art."
Talking about his fellow band mates, Hutch mentions Mick Fleetwood's admiration for Raitt's drummer Ricky Fataar. "Mick is Ricky's biggest fan," he says.
"I love his playing," Mick affirms.