Two-time GRAMMY® nominee Tracy Bonham is a classically trained violinist, pianist, and vocalist turned alt-rock singer-songwriter.
Bonham rose to fame in 1996 with her unique style of quirky songwriting and unrefined guitar playing. Her debut album, The Burdens of Being Upright (Island Records), achieved Gold status in the US, Australia, and Canada and cast Bonham into the global spotlight with buzz-clip status on MTV and heavy rotation radio airplay with her #1 alternative chart-topping song “Mother Mother”, an anthem for disgruntled teenagers of all ages.
Due to major shake-ups in the music industry Bonham’s second album, Down Here, was significantly delayed and released on Island-Def Jam in 2000. While continuing to tour the world, including several dates on the mainstage with Lilith Fair for two years (1997 and 1998), the industry’s landscape had become almost unrecognizable and had negative impacts on most strong female artists and their careers. It is worth mentioning that Mother Mother was to be the last #1 Alternative Music chart topping single released by a solo female artist until the artist Lord released her song Royals 17 years later. This change inspired Tracy to rethink how she approached her music and the music business. She asked Island-Def Jam Records to end her multi-record contract and with that newfound freedom, she relocated to Los Angeles to make her third album Blink the Brightest (Rounder / Zoé). This collection of songs became fan favorites with beautiful melodies and heartfelt messages of perseverance after tragedy, unrequited love, and broken dreams.
In 2003 and 2006 Bonham appeared as the featured vocalist and violinist in Blue Man Group’s arena tours (The Complex, How To Be A Megastar 2.0) in which she sold her self-released EPs (Bee EP and In The City & In The Woods) in rock arenas all over the United States enabling her to self-fund her third and fourth albums. In 2010, Bonham released Masts Of Manhatta (Engine Room Records) and continued to procure a more mature audience while maintaining the quirky humor and edginess of her first escapades in songwriting.
In 2015, Bonham released Wax & Gold on her imprint label A Woody Hollow. As a new mother to an adopted son this album found Bonham breaking down her idea of what a family looks and feels like as she came to terms with her own complicated upbringing that never left her feeling unloved.
In the time leading up to the 2016 elections, Bonham teamed up with friend John Wlaysewski of the band Late Cambrian to make a 20th anniversary album of The Burdens of Being Upright, Bonham’s hit debut. As the entire world reacted to what seemed like a complete slap in the face as the news of Donald Trump’s presidential win reverberated, both Bonham and Wlaysewski decided to switch gears and invite as many strong female voices as they could to join taking center stage with Bonham on an album that would aptly be called Modern Burdens. The album made Rolling Stone’s Top 50 albums of 2017, which they describe as “a lovingly penned postcard to Bonham’s past self, and a fascinating look at where she’s at right now.”
In early March 2020, Tracy showcased her new material on a West Coast tour with bassist Rene Hart with the plan of recording an album upon her return home to New York City. The last performance in Los Angeles at the Hotel Cafe on March 13, 2020 was to be the last show the venue would have until the world reopened post-COVID. On the nearly empty plane home on March 15th, 2020, Bonham and Hart made the decision to shift gears knowing that it would be some time before another tour could take place due to the pandemic. Taking action during quarantine, Tracy and Rene uncovered previously finished recordings made with fellow educator and collaborator Josh Margolis of Margolis Productions for what would become an entirely new endeavor called Melodeon®, a music education project pointing toward a younger audience Bonham lovingly calls her “young music enthusiasts”. This new enterprise combines her original material with original music education curriculums inspired by School House Rock, Electric Company, and Sesame Street. Tracy Bonham & Melodeon® released their first album entitled Young Maestros Vol. 1 on April 16, 2021, on Melodeon Music House Records.
In 2021, Bonham was approached by resident choreographer for the Eugene Ballet Suzanne Haag and the two of them began collaborating on an upcoming ballet production slated for 2024. With new inspiration of having her music set to movement on a larger stage Bonham and music collaborator Rene Hart created gorgeous arrangments for her band with strings and glass harmonica. Creating the material gave Bonham a chance to connect to her younger self as a classically trained musician and would become the material for what was to be her next album, Sky Too Wide.
In December of 2023, Bonham, Hart, and drummer Alvester Garnett started recording the basic tracks for Sky Too Wide at Applehead Recording Studio in Woodstock, NY with the hopes of coming back to mix the ablum within the next couple of months. In January of 2024, Bonham received a harrowing phone call from her doctor with a breast cancer diagnosis and Tracy underwent surgery in March of that year. In April, only one month after surgery, Bonham and band performed her new arrangments with the Eugene Ballet for two nights at the Hult Center For The Performing Arts. After a susequent west coast tour she returned home to complete the mixes for Sky Too Wide.
Sky Too Wide (co-produced with Rene Hart) was already going to be an album about perseverance and resilience after having had a challenging few years with a divorce during quarantine and an unrelated health issue. The album had taken on a whole new meaning for Tracy with songs like Whether You Fall becoming an anthem for this new phase of life. On June 6, 2025, Sky Too Wide was released to favorable reviews some saying it is her best work yet.
2026 will be a big year for Bonham as she creates new arrangments for the 30th anniversary celebration of her debut album The Burdens of Being Upright. A new show is under development as Bonham begins to employ storytelling into her performances. Bonham will be exploring her relationship to anger and that scream (“everything’s fine!”) that was heard around the world.
Tracy is currently residing in Brooklyn, NY with her son.
About Sky Too Wide: "This album may seem like a reinvention of self for Bonham, the former angst ridden, abrasive, alternative rock queen. But it’s not. The reflective, inquisitive classical, jazz-like numbers in which Bonham seeks meaning in life and cleverly expresses herself, are who she has always been." ~ Indie Review
“Bonham, from the beginning and increasingly over time, is a riveting, complicated maker of pop music.” ~ PopMatters