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HALEY BONAR
http://www.haleybonar.com/
[BIOGRAPHY]
[PHOTOS]
[PRESS]
[TOUR DATES]
[AUDIO]
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BIOGRAPHY
Haley Bonar is 22 years old, hailing from Rapid City, SD, who currently resides
in St. Paul, MN. Her live shows consist of guitar, Fender Rhodes keyboard, drums
and/or bass. Haley's music is versatile and subtle, swinging from melodic and
full, to hushed and sublime. Her second album, "The Size of Planets" was
released on Chairkicker's Union, a Duluth-based independent label owned by Low's
Alan Sparhawk, in April of 2003. "The Size of Planets" was voted one of the best
albums of 2003 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and received raved reviews from
presses like The Big Takeover, Miles of Music, Minneapolis City Pages, Chicago
Sun Times, Pulse Magazine, Splendid, and more. Over the past two years, Haley
has toured with bands like Low, Richard Buckner, Mary Lou Lord, and Mason
Jennings, and has shared the stage with such bands as Pedro the Lion, Josh
Ritter, Neko Case, Shannon Wright, and the Black Eyed Snakes.
She has just finished up her third album, "Lure the Fox", which is hoped to be
released in the earlier part of 2006. Check out the newest tour dates for an
upcoming east coast run. She will be playing this tour as a duo with
bassist/singer Chris Morrissey.
"The Size of Planets is not only one of the most beautiful records
of the year, it is also one of the best." - Miles of Music
"...The Size of Planets is diverse and seamless at the same time, with enough
vocal and lyrical encouragement from Bonar to push the album from 'excellent' to
'amazing'."
-Splendid Magazine
"Haley Bonar is anything but
background music." - Alternative Press
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PHOTOS
Click on a thumbnail to download that hi-res JPEG (suitable for publication):
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TOUR DATES
- 11/3/07 * Fitger's Brewhouse * Duluth, MN
- 11/9/07 * Lake Pepin Art and Design Center * Lake Pepin, WI
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PRESS
Haley Bonar
Lure the Fox
Songwriter's lyrics, sounds cathartic
Brooding songs help Haley Bonar find joy beyond depression
By Gene Triplett, Entertainment Editor, The Daily Oklahoman
Fri December 1, 2006
Haley Bonar recorded her first album in the attic of a farmhouse in
the Black Hills of South Dakota in the dead of winter. She was in her
last year of high school at the time, a self-described "weird girl"
prone to bouts of depression and partial to the tortured teen-angst
tunes of Nirvana and Radiohead.
So, the dark, downcast nature of her beautifully rustic indie-folk
songs isn't hard to understand until one gazes upon her bright,
green-eyed smile in the liner photo of her latest album, "Lure the
Fox," and then hears that same smile in her friendly, upbeat,
little-girl voice during a phone interview from St. Paul, Minn., her
new hometown.
Could this be the same woman who sings such haunted lines as: "I think
it's high time we pay the ransom / We can't live like this forever in
the kingdom / ... drinking devil's water / Living in my dreams and
waking to disaster"? The voice is so convincingly sad, a heartbreaking
hush, falling somewhere between the emotional clarity of Neko Case and
the melancholy whisper of Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins.
"Yeah, it does surprise people, including my family," Bonar says of
the contrast between her music and the face she puts on for the world.
"They're like, 'Why is this so dark, why is this so dark?' But I've
struggled a lot with depression. Runs in my family and stuff."
Perhaps that's part of what made her an outsider growing up in Rapid City, S.D.
"I wasn't a bad kid, but I've always been kind of a weird, weird girl,
kind of different. That can work for you later in your life, but as
far as being in public schools goes, it sucks."
When artists such as Kurt Cobain and Thom Yorke sang their songs of
alienation, Bonar identified. It inspired her to pick up a guitar at
age 14. By 15, she was a regular on the local open-mike scene, and
club owners tended to ignore her tender age. She began writing songs,
as her musical sphere of influences expanded to include the more
folk-oriented work of Elliott Smith and Richard Buckner.
"I kind of realized that you can still play hard music with an
acoustic guitar," Bonar said.
When family friend Ken Anderson, an amateur bluegrass musician and
recording hobbyist, invited Bonar to use his farmhouse attic studio
free of charge, Bonar wasted no time in choosing 12 of her songs for
her self-titled debut, "Haley Bryn Bonar."
"After school or on the weekends, I would drive out there and record
for an hour or two. And that was really nice. I can never forget that.
Like, sitting, playing, I didn't feel like I was recording. I felt
like I was playing in a room that had windows and snow and the Black
Hills and no one else around."
After releasing the album in 2001 and graduating from high school the
same year, the singer-songwriter moved to Duluth, Minn., to attend the
University of Minnesota. She also hit the local coffeehouse and bar
circuit, where she met her first bandmate — and future boyfriend —
drummer David Frankenfeld. Bonar also met guitarist-vocalist Alan
Sparhawk of the critically-acclaimed, Duluth-based slow-core band Low,
who liked her music enough to release her second CD, "The Size of
Planets," on Low's independent Chairkickers Music label in 2002.
Sparhawk also invited her along on Low's U.S. and European tour that
year as an opening act.
Deciding her sad songs were succeeding, Bonar left school to pursue
her musical career full time in Minneapolis. Since then, she has
toured the United States and Europe with the likes of Mason Jennings,
Andrew Bird, Mary Lou Lord, Richard Buckner and Charlie Parr and
shared stages with Neko Case, Pedro the Lion and Wanda Jackson.
Her new album — featuring Bonar on vocals, guitars and keys, bassist
(and current boyfriend) Chris Morrissey, drummer Dave King and a
special appearance by Sparhawk — has earned her awards for best
roots/Americana recording and best roots/Americana artist at the 2006
Minnesota Music Awards, and her latest U.S. tour opens tonight at
Opolis, the "third or fourth time" she's played the Norman venue.
So, it seems her sad, introspective, often autobiographical tunes have
brought her a long way from that attic studio in the Black Hills. For
Bonar, the journey has been a cathartic one.
"I don't think I'd be alive if I didn't write songs," she said. "When
I was a teenager, like I said, I struggled with depression. I
definitely wanted to end my life for a while, and that is just kind of
like an answered prayer, songwriting is. I don't know what I'd do
without it, that's for sure."
Haley Bonar
Lure the Fox
Show some love for indie folk artist Haley Bonar
NICOLE KEIPER, The Tennessean
There's some pretty remarkable indie music coming out of Minneapolis right about now, from indie hip-hop (Atmosphere) to indie-rock (Tapes 'n Tapes), and Minneapolis indie-folk artist Haley Bonar certainly fits in plenty well with her artistically thrilling brethren.
She fittingly earns her share of hometown love — this year's Minnesota Music Awards named her the winner in the American Roots Artist category, and her most recent disc, Lure the Fox, tops in the American Roots Recording category.
She deserves far wider love: Bonar's voice is a silken hush that gently caresses her rustic acoustic strums, and her songs are simple, elegantly reverb-ed laments that tug at your tear ducts in the same way slowcore favorite Low's songs do. (Which is kind of fitting, since Bonar's second disc, The Size of Planets, came out on Low singer Alan Sparhawk's Chairkickers' Union label.)
Bonar will play an intimate set tonight at Cafe Coco (210 Louise Ave., 321-2626), which, judging by the affectingly naked production of the album, has to be the ideal setting to hear her songs. The all-ages show starts up at 8, and the cover is $5.
"Bonar's voice is nothing short of miraculous, consistently hitting
bullseye somewhere between a crystal clear Neko Case and a less
ornamental Dar Williams..." - Splendid
Haley Bonar began playing around her hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota at the age of 15, braving the “open mic” scene with a borrowed guitar. She wrote her first batch of songs over the following two years, choosing twelve of them for her first self-titled CD, Haley Bryn Bonar, in 2001. The music was recorded during her last year of high school in the attic of a Black Hills farmhouse in the dead of winter.
“….an alt-country siren drifting easily through autobiographical
snapshots, fiction, and dream imagery from some space where the clocks
don't run as planned.” - City Pages
After releasing her CD and graduating from high school, Haley moved to Duluth, MN to attend UMD. While playing the local coffee house and bar scene, she met her first band mate, Dave Frankenfeld, and recorded her next CD, The Size of Planets. Duluth native Alan Sparhawk (Low) heard her at a show, promptly adding her to his US and European tour,
and then re-released The Size of Planets on his indie label, Chairkicker’s Union. She left school and eventually moved to
Minneapolis to continue pursuing her career in music.
Since then, she has toured with Mason Jennings, Andrew Bird, Mary Lou Lord, Richard
Buckner, and Charlie Parr in the US and Europe. She has also shared stages with Neko Case, Pedro the Lion, and Wanda Jackson. She will appear on Andrew Bird’s upcoming recording, slated for 2007 release.
“Bonar possesses a voice that makes you sit down and listen, a voice
that would make beautiful music no matter what she was singing.
Amazingly, though, Bonar's voice is matched with a wit and gift for
observation that are rare among any songwriter, let alone one that has
yet to turn twenty.”
- Dusted Magazine
Haley’s latest CD, Lure the Fox, was recorded in Cannon Falls MN at the famed Pachyderm Studio (Nirvana, PJ Harvey) in August of 2005 with drummer Dave King (Happy Apple/The Bad Plus), Chris Morrissey (Mason
Jennings) on bass and vocals, and a special appearance by Alan Sparhawk (Low). The CD was released in April 2006 on Mary Ellen Records -- a new, non-profit label whose sole mission is to grant creative freedom and financial support to its growing stable of artists (maryellenrecords.com).
Haley Bonar has garnered three nominations for the 2006 Minnesota Music Awards, including Best Roots/Americana Recording, Best Roots/Americana artist, and Best Female Vocalist.
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AUDIO
Click on an audio track below to download a mp3:
Haley Bonar - Lure the Fox [2006]
Fox & Hound [mp3] - 6.05 mb
Hawaii [mp3] - 5.09 mb
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