Sorry I’ve been absent from class lately. Life got busy. But now, here I am, so let’s get into it.

Friday’s musical moment finds me listening in the waking hours (for me between 6am and 8am) to Bonnie Raitt’s double live album “Road Tested.”

Road Tested is one of the finest and most accurate live representations of an artist that you’ll find. Guests out the wazoo, but they all fit. They’re all friends of Bonnie that you would expect to be there – Bruce Hornsby, Jackson Browne, Kim Wilson from the Fabulous Thunderbirds, etc.

I like this live record for a lot of reasons, one of them being that it falls into the special category of being recorded on the tour that I saw from Bonnie.

A female friend of mine and I went to see Bonnie at Blossom Music Center, with Bruce Hornsby opening up. As I was listening to this live album, I realized this morning that Bonnie was really the first connecting point between me and the female population.

Sure, there had been girls before, but Bonnie was the first time that I can remember making a musical connection with someone, and it became an important part of my world. I discovered that I could use my love of music to find that common ground with someone Instead of jumping straight into awkward conversation, I could instead learn a bit more about who they were, by finding out some of their favorite music.

The Bonnie show was the result of one of those experiences. The girl and I went to the show together as a result of exploring those musical similarities. She didn’t know it on that night, but while she was there 100 percent to see Bonnie, I was there mainly to see Bruce Hornsby. I had a healthy appreciation for Bonnie’s music, but in my world at that point, Bruce was the man.

At the show that night, the unexpected happened, and Bonnie sold me on her entire career. Bruce opened up with an amazing set, Bonnie comes out and proceeds to continue to stoke the flames that Bruce already has blazing. And of course, the ultimate awesomeness occurs around the point that Bruce comes out to jam with Bonnie mid-set. Musical nirvana.

Road Tested is a great representation of that night that anyone can appreciate. One of the early highlights, is an extra-bluesy rendition of Love Letter, one of Bonnie’s initial comeback hits in the late 80s. That was my initial exposure to Bonnie – it had a great video too that really took you inside of the song.

As I was digging into my music collection a couple of years ago, I was surprised to find that I didn’t have Road Tested in my collection anymore. Apparently, it might have been a victim of the great CD sell-off in the mid-90’s that I used to get my car out of the impound at that point.

Now, in these times of the Ipod, I’ve been going to the B’s on my Ipod, thinking that Road Tested was on there, discovering that it wasn’t, and now, it is.

As for the girl? After losing track of her, she found me a couple of years ago through the radio station website. We traded stories of happiness – she was married and a school teacher – and we made plans to get together – the four of us, so that she could meet my better half, and likewise. Life kind of got in the way of that a bit, but now that things have settled down, I’m hoping that we can finally get together and make that connection.

And Bonnie? Well, she needs to come back around. It’s been too long.

Bonnie Raitt – Love Me Like A Man (from Road Tested)