Whole Foods Market® is honored to carry Bonnie Raitt’s newest global release, Slipstream. Bonnie has earned nine Grammy Awards over her extraordinary career – and is as well-known for her music, as she is for her activism.
Whole Planet Foundation opens in a new tab is grateful for Bonnie’s contribution of a song to the Download for a Difference initiative launching this month in Whole Foods Market stores in Southern California. Look for it in more stores in the coming months.
I’ve shopped in Whole Foods Market stores all over the country, in many of the cities we've had the good fortune to visit on tour. Playing five shows a week as we do, staying healthy on the road is a priority. It's great to know we can find what we need just walking through their doors.
As we hit the road this month, I’m very excited about my new release, Slipstream opens in a new tab. It’s the first album I’ve made independently on my own label, Redwing Records. While I've always retained creative control over the making and promotion of my albums, this is my first time at the helm of my own ship, with my own crew managing every aspect of the release.
Since starting out in 1970, I’ve been signed to two major labels — 16 years on Warner Brothers and then another 16 on Capitol Records.
Starting my own record company now, with the music business in such flux, involves a huge leap of faith. There are risks and rewards to controlling your own destiny; you've got to own up to however things turn out. But it’s incredibly empowering and liberating to take this chance.
So many don't have that choice.
This is one of the reasons I'm drawn to the Whole Planet Foundation's Musicians for Microcredit movement.
While researching the Download for a Difference opens in a new tab initiative, I learned the following about the inspiring Nobel Peace Prize winner and founding father of the microcredit movement, Professor Muhammad Yunus opens in a new tab, who sits at the heart of the Advisory Board of the Whole Planet Foundation: "From his early days trying to get micro-financing off the ground in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus spent every day in a whisper making a difference in women’s lives all around him – until that whisper grew so large, it shouted to the rest of the world. It shouted a story that if you believe in someone just a little bit; if you give her the tools to get on her feet – she’ll surprise you, over and over again.
It was a message to the world about trust. About dignity. About humanity. About taking ownership that we’re all in this together on so many levels." That message really resonates with me. Being raised Quaker, one of the values I cherish most is that we're really here to be of service — to use our gifts to help others any way we can. On the Whole Planet Foundation site, I read a lot of stories about women who have overcome extraordinary obstacles to make it opens in a new tab; to find dignity in their lives. As I’ve been blessed with starting Redwing, I want to help other women achieve the same kind of independence and opportunity.
That is why I'm proud to partner with Whole Planet Foundation's "Download for a Difference" initiative — to raise awareness of the powerful work of micro-lending in developing countries. Thank you, Whole Foods Market, for bringing this inspiring project to life. I'm honored to be a part of it.
For more information about Bonnie's music, activism and to listen to her new album, Slipstream, please visit bonnieraitt.com opens in a new tab.
Enjoy Bonnie’s video “Right Down the Line,” her first single from Slipstream.
Thanks to Jimmy Dunne, President of Inspire – a music and branding company partnering on entertainment initiatives with Whole Foods Market – for celebrating artists, such as Bonnie Raitt, who use the arts and their talents to make the world a better place.
