Tracy Bonham
(born 16 March 1967 in Eugene, Oregon) is a Grammy-nominated American musician best known for her single "Mother Mother".
Raised in Eugene, Oregon, Bonham is a classically trained violinist and pianist. She received two Grammy nominations in 1997 for Best Alternative Album and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Today, Bonham splits her time between the Woodstock and Brooklyn. She is married to Rolling Stone executive editor Jason Fine.
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TRACY BONHAM TICKETS
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Biography
Life and Early Music Career
Raised in Eugene,
Oregon, Bonham began singing at age 5 and playing the
violin at 9. She received a full scholarship to the
University of Southern California for
violin, but she eventually transferred to
Berklee College of Music to study voice instead. She started writing songs in 1994 after moving to
Boston. Her first EP, the Liverpool Sessions, won best single in the Boston Phoenix reader's poll in 1995 for the song "The One". In 1996, her major label debut
The Burdens of Being Upright
went gold, spawning the hit single "Mother Mother", and leading to a pair of
Grammy nominations. The follow-up,
Down Here
, was released in 2000 and since that time she’s continued her career, playing her music around the country.
When asked about the maturation of her songwriting, Bonham replies, “I think I stopped trying to prove so much to people. I went inward and realized that being honest and not being so veiled and cryptic can actually touch more people. In the past, I wanted to be deep, but then I went too far and was over-thinking everything. Now I just write from the heart.”
[1]
The Burdens of Being Upright Era: 1995 to 1999
Tracy Bonham became a critically acclaimed artist after her debut full-length album
The Burdens of Being Upright
. Magazines such as
Rolling Stone
and
People
noted her bold approach to rock music. Her single "Mother, Mother" was number one on the rock charts for a month. Later that year Bonham was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Performance and Best Female Vocal. She then went on extensive touring. The album's second single, "The One" was a minor hit and peaked at #23 on The Billboard "Hot Modern Rock Tracks" chart
[2], the video was briefly in heavy rotation on MTV & VH1. The third and final single, "Sharks Can't Sleep" failed to chart in the US.
Bonham was also featured in
Soulwax's sophomore album
Much Against Everyone's Advice on the track, "My Cruel Joke".
Down Here Era: 2000 to 2002
After the mild success of her first album, Tracy released
Down Here
, her second full-length album. Originally titled "Trails of a Dust Devil" with promos having been sent out with that title, the album and the only single released from it, "Behind Every Good Woman", failed to chart. She took a break after promoting the album while searching for a new label.
Bee EP Era: 2003 to 2005
Tracy parted ways with her record label. Whilst touring in support of
Blue Man Group, she recorded and released an independent EP,
Bee
. It included early versions of "Shine" and "All Thumbs" and a live version of "Freed" from the
Down Here
album, and a cover of "Black Dog", originally performed by
Led Zeppelin. With the money made from selling this EP she returned to the studio to start work on her third full-length LP. The Bee EP was later re-issued in Europe as the
Something Beautiful
EP, with the addition of the title track (lifted from
Blink the Brightest
), and a DVD with bonus live performances.
Blink the Brightest Era: 2005 to 2006
On
June 21,
2005, Bonham released
Blink the Brightest
(Zoë/Rounder). It was recorded in
L.A., where she has lived part-time since 2003.
Bonham is also a self-taught guitarist.
[1] “Guitar-wise, I have a certain style that I can’t seem to get any guitar player to mimic, and it’s because they’re good and I’m bad,” she has said. “And I don’t mind. There’s a way I want to hear it, so I just do it myself.”
[1]
Bonham co-produced the bulk of the album with
Greg Collins (
U2,
No Doubt,
Matchbox Twenty);
Joey Waronker, who has drummed for
R.E.M. and
Beck, co-produced four tracks. Along with Bonham, the players include drummers Waronker and Butch (eels), bassists
Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing, Neil Finn) and
Davey Faragher (Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow), guitarists
Joe Gore (Tom Waits, P.J. Harvey) and
Dave Levita (Alanis Morissette, Jewel) and keyboard player
Mitchell Froom (Paul McCartney, Los Lobos).
Unlike Bonham’s first two albums, which were underwritten by her former label
Island Records, Bonham paid the recording costs of
Blink the Brightest
herself
[1] with money she’d made from selling copies of her EPs while touring with the Blue Man Group in 2003 (she previously appeared on the group’s album,
The Complex
).
In The City + In The Woods
In the late fall/early winter of 2006, Bonham released
In The City + In The Woods
, her second EP which she funded herself. The 11-track disc features two studio tracks, a cover version of
Beyoncé Knowles's "Crazy In Love" and an original- "In My Other Life". The rest of the songs are live tracks, which include some older favorites ("One Hit Wonder" and a stunning new version of "Navy Bean"), covers ("Blue Jay Way"), and previously unreleased material ("Your World Turns Upside Down", "The Idiot In Me").
New Album Era: 2007 to present
Tracy is currently recording new music in Woodstock, NY for her forthcoming project. Some of the songs have been performed live, while others have been put up on Tracy's site as free downloads.
The following list includes the new songs Tracy has written and/or performed:
- Carry Me Home *+
- Your Night Is Wide Open *+
- We Moved Our City To The Country +
- Josephine +
- MySpace, I Can't Keep Up +
- Big Tattoo +
- When You Laugh The World Laughs With You +
- Wonderful +
- The Size of My Fist +
- Angel, Won't You Come Down +
- Big Red Heart +
- Devil's Got Your Boyfriend
- In The Moonlight *+
- The Screamer, The Hugger, And Me *
- I Love You Today
- Reciprocal Feelings +
*released on Tracy Bonham's Official Web site and/or MySpace
/
+ performed live
Trivia
- Tracy is well recognized in Blue Man Group's fan base. She sang on their album The Complex
and performed with them on the accompanying tour. She opened for the group on the first leg of their second national tour, How to be a Megastar Tour 2.0,
and performed during their set for all of the songs requiring a female vocal. Tracy also made an appearance on America's Got Talent
where she sang and played violin for Blue Man Group's performance of "Baba O'Riley".
- She sang and played violin on the album Honkin' on Bobo
by Aerosmith. Two of Bonham's songs have been used in Showtime's drama series The L Word
: "Naked" and "Whether you Fall", both belonging to her album Blink the Brightest
.
- Bonham's song, "Something Beautiful", from the 2005 album Blink the Brightest
, has been used on a commercial promoting AMC.
- Bonham is also featured on the No blues album, Ya Dunya
. She appears in three tracks, playing violin on every one and singing on only one.
References
- Tracy Bonham - Blink the brightest
- Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales
- Tracy Bonham - Blink the brightest
- Tracy Bonham - Blink the brightest
- Tracy Bonham - Blink the brightest