“It’s almost like coming home,” Bonnie Raitt told an audience of more than 6,600 at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland Tuesday night. And the welcome that the audience gave her was like one reserved for a member of the family everyone’s been wanting to see: as warm, enthusiastic and emotional as Raitt’s performance itself.

When Raitt talks to the audience, she’s addressing the same people she mentioned she saw before the concert at the TCBY where she was getting frozen yogurt: people saying, “Hello, see you at the concert,” people who can identify with what she’s saying when she sings a ballad, gets into the blues, or has fun rocking. As she put it midway through her performance, it’s like being in your living room — and then having her say what she means when she’s there.

While Raitt’s personality infuses her performance, her virtuosity gives reason to listen to every song, not just the “greatest hits” heard on the radio. In the first six songs, she established her repertoire, from rock to blues to ballad. She established her musicianship, changing guitars four times and then sitting down to a keyboard. She established her vocal range, from that husky speaking voice you could listen to all night to those long, high notes that sound so sweet, so poignant in your ear.

And she established where she’s been, reaching back to 1972 and coming full circle to her latest release, “Longing in Their Hearts,” evoking old and new memories in those whose history parallels hers and in those who have discovered her since the release of her hit albums, “Luck of the Draw” and “Nick of Time.” With that began two hours of sheer enjoyment.

Raitt shares the spotlight with her accompaniment — six mature, multitalented musicians who are enjoying what they’re doing and enjoy whom they’re doing it with. When Raitt introduces you to her band, it is with respect and admiration as much as it is friendship. The chemistry comes together well.

Bruce Hornsby’s opening act fit into the mix as well. As consummate a musician and performer as Hornsby is, his was indeed a tough act to follow. Whether he was rocking on a baby grand piano or an accordion, there was but one regret the audience might have shared with him — that he couldn’t play longer. Backed by a six-member ensemble, his hour on the stage featured hits such as “That’s Just the Way It Is” and “Look Out Any Window.”

From her opening numbers to her four encores, Bonnie Raitt demonstrated why she’s the headliner. The songs from “Longing in Their Hearts,” including the title tune written with her husband, actor Michael O’Keefe; “Circle Dance,” a ballad dedicated to her father, Broadway star John Raitt; and the love song, “Dimming of the Day,” made up nearly half of the program and offer a unique perspective on her years as a musician and her experience as a person.

“Something to Talk About” and “In the Nick of Time” highlighted recent releases. “Give It Up or Let Me Go” was among those tunes that brought back that blues voice that vibrated on the airwaves back in 1972.

Hornsby came back out to accompany Raitt on piano as she sang “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” combining the excellence of his playing with the emotion of her vocalization.

The duet “Good Man, Good Woman” and “Love Sneakin’ Up on You” sent a satisfied audience into the warm July night with lyrics on their lips, and a rock and a roll in their steps.

Toward the end of the concert, Raitt pointed out that throughout the ups and downs of her career, she always knew that people in New England would come to see her. If the reception the people in the Civic Center gave her is any indication, that’s a sure bet for the future, too.

As one fan put it, “We love you, Bonnie.”