The Grammy Awards have been rightly criticized over the years for being out of touch. Whether it’s giving Jethro Tull a trophy in a Hard Rock/Metal category or honoring such pallid fare as Lionel Richie’s “Can’t Slow Down” as Album of the Year ahead of landmark releases such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” and Prince’s “Purple Rain, the Recording Academy has a lengthy history of being out of step with the times.

That checkered past makes it all the more remarkable how well the Academy has reflected the career of Bonnie Raitt.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer (class of 2000) kicked out solidly reviewed LPs for the first two decades of her career, picking up a handful of Grammy nominations along the way. Then in 1989 came the album (and soon after that the Grammys) that would change her career.

“Nick of Time” took Raitt from journeyman blues and roots rocker to superstar. It was the best-received album of her career, both critically (making many year-end best-of lists) and commercially (becoming the best-selling album of her career even before the Grammy nominations kicked its sales into high gear).

“It was as close as a Cinderella story as you’re ever gonna get,” Raitt said last week in a phone call from the Bay Area, where she lives when she’s not touring. “I was on vacation and found out I’d been nominated for Album of the Year, which was completely unexpected.”

Raitt credits the success of “Nick of Time” to a perfect storm of sorts. Besides the critical acclaim, Raitt says the rise of the cable network VH1 — which then almost entirely played music videos — and a resurgence for her brand of rock helped boost the album’s sales.

“VH1 had just been created, so they actually would play a 40-year-old artist,” Raitt recalled, “and roots music was getting a big boost from people like Tracy Chapman and the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Robert Cray, and they all had big hit records, and they kinda crossed over … and VH1, I had Dennis Quaid starring in my video (for ‘Thing Called Love’), and he was a big star.”

Grammy night only added to that, as “Nick of Time” took home three major awards, including Album of the Year, and Raitt added a fourth for a collaboration with blues legend John Lee Hooker.

Raitt returns to Hawaii this weekend for her first Hawaii shows in four years, in support of her 2016 release “Dig in Deep.”

The album continues a strong third act to Raitt’s career, building on 2012’s “Slipstream,” which earned her the most recent of her 10 competitive Grammys, fittingly as Best Americana Album. The category lines up well with how her place in the music industry — and in our lives — has evolved.

Where the eight Grammys and six other nominations Raitt earned for three albums across the first half of the ’90s reflect her standing then at the front of the industry, her latest trophy sums up her current status as a legend who brings together the disparate genres that make up “American music.”

Sure, Raitt is known for her blues, roots and rock, sometimes with a tinge of country, but she has never been afraid to incorporate other sounds, from reggae to soul. On “Dig in Deep” she takes on Mexican rock with a cover of Los Lobos’ “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes.”

The variety is important to her.

“I’d be too bored going on tour with just the blues. It’s the mix of a John Prine song next to a Talking Heads song that makes it fun for us,” Raitt said. “We’ll be drawing a lot from the new record but going back and getting some favorites around ‘Nick of Time’ … and doing some songs from my ’70s Warner Brothers records as well.”

While the pop music scene rarely has room for artists in their 60s, Raitt continues to command respect in the industry and has settled into the role of elder stateswoman. Her last two albums have been ranked by Rolling Stone among the year’s best, and the magazine also placed her on its lists of the top singers and guitarists in rock ’n’ roll.

No less an authority than blues icon B.B. King validated those accolades.

“I came up in a macho world and never thought I’d ever declare the best living slide guitarist to be a woman. Well, I’m declaring,” King told Billboard magazine before his 2015 death. “Bonnie is as true-blue an artist as anyone before or since. She might be singing pop or she might be singing R&B, but she’s never far from the source. She has become part of the source herself. She’s a master.”

Newer artists put her on that same pedestal.

“She is in a league of her own as a ­performer, singer, guitarist,” Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard told Billboard after performing with Raitt in 2014. “In the short time we have spent together, I was amazed at how she carries herself — and her respect and love of music and its history.”

Raitt has herself, of course, become a part of America’s rich musical history. She’s seen just about everything in her 40-plus years as a national artist, and she likes the direction music is going in with the help of technology.

“(There’s) the ability to investigate all kinds of tributaries of jazz and blues and roots and bluegrass music and Hawaiian music, that who knew there was even footage of this stuff?” Raitt said. “So the great news is it’s never been more democratic and able for people to put out their own music and share music and delight in researching and finding out about all kinds of things that you would never get to see if you didn’t have the internet.”

The downside is how streaming has hurt the income of artists, musicians, songwriters, et al.

“It’s unfortunate that the people who own YouTube and are getting the funds from the advertising are not sharing it (more) with the artists that create the content. … The artists don’t have a seat at the table to determine how much of each stream they get, so at the moment it’s just a pittance and no one can make a living at it. … The engineers and the songwriters and the musicians all need to get paid. When you see things for free, it might be fun and convenient, but it’s definitely kind of ripping people off on the other end.”

Keeping the income flowing for those who depend on her is part of what keeps Raitt touring.

“There are a lot of people who rely on this tour,” Raitt said, “especially with people not buying CDs as much anymore, to put it mildly. Income from songwriting and CD sales are way down, so those of us that are lucky enough to tour … You know, it’s not just about me getting financial remuneration. It’s about the 30 or 40 people that depend on our touring organization to keep things going. And then you’re touring also for your fans primarily, and I also support a lot of causes.”

Raitt calls her causes “the fifth member of my band.” Raitt’s activism is nearly as much a part of her story as is her music.

At age 67 she has the idealism of a fresh-faced college graduate, with none of the fear of unemployment or weight of debt.

Portions of her ticket sales go to more than a hundred nonprofits in support of the arts, the environment and human rights, among other causes. And with recent cuts in government spending, Raitt sees her charity as even more vital.

“I think it’s so important to keep democracy alive and the earth alive,” said Raitt, who added that the groups are vetted each year to make sure they remain effective. “I think we’re gonna need to step up more and more in the private sector.”

Raitt’s Honolulu show will benefit Sierra Club-Hawaii, and her Maui show will raise money for Hawaiian Islands Land Trust and Hawaii Wildlife Fund.

She credits her upbringing for her activism.

“Being raised Quaker was very significant. We were very active in the banning of bombs and the nuclear test ban treaty, (working toward) civil rights, human rights, supporting and raising money for Algerian refugees … especially the issues of peace and peaceful conflict resolution. That was a part of my childhood, just the values that we were supposed to ease suffering and give something back whenever possible, work for justice if you see someone getting bullied. That was a big part of what our parents raised us kids as.”

Raitt comes to Hawaii on her way to seven dates in New Zealand and Australia. Many artists skip right over the islands on the way Down Under, but for Raitt, who is making her third stop here in the past decade, it was never a consideration, nor is joining the “Boycott Hawaii” movement brought on by backlash from the recent ruling against President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

“Not likely! I’ll be jumping up and down celebrating,” she said. “The aloha spirit is alive and well around the world, thanks to you guys.”