“I was wishing I could just shrink the sky and bring my loved ones closer to me so I could feel their love, support and acceptance. It was a very lonely time,” says twice GRAMMY®-nominated singer-songwriter TRACY BONHAMabout her new single “Damn The Sky (For Being Too Wide)” (release date: March 22, 2024 via A Woody Hollow). Her first studio release since 2017’s Modern Burdens (a reimagining of her Gold-certified breakthrough debut, 1996’s The Burdens of Being Upright), “Damn the Sky” is a vulnerable and tender plea, longing for her friends and family in Oregon while she underwent challenges at home in Brooklyn.
“This song wrote itself one day while I was home alone after having a really tough day needing support and acceptance from the people closest to me but realizing that the truly loving, supportive, and accepting people in my life were thousands of miles away,” she continues. “I was missing my family and friends in Oregon… the people who accept me for who I am and support me in ways where I feel encouraged and empowered rather than criticized.
Featuring upright bassist Rene Hart (David Amram, James Hunter) and drummer Alvester Garnett (Regina Carter, Abbey Lincoln) with Tracy on vocals and piano, “Damn The Sky” is a gorgeous, textural track that borrows harmonic structures and beautiful melodies from her favorite classical romantic composers, Debussy and Ravel. Tracy stretches herself artistically to combine this rediscovered passion with her unique and quirky indie rock songwriting style to create musical alchemy.
“Playing with incredible jazz musicians like Rene and Alvester has opened my mind and is now giving me the support I have always needed to spread my wings and fly,” explains Tracy, herself a classically-trained violinist and an alumnus of Berklee School of Music. “I am really enjoying exploring the intersections and overlaps of where classical and jazz meet without excluding my alternative rock sensibilities. These dudes can rock too. The three of us playing together is definitely my happy place.”
An exciting development that naturally sprang from this fresh, new musical direction was her collaboration with Oregon’s Eugene Ballet. Adapting music from her catalog (she has released six albums and an equal number of EPs), the Eugene Ballet will be hosting two performances on April 6th and 7th in which her band will perform live while the ballet transforms her music into dance.
When I was approached by the Eugene Ballet in 2021, and by the choreographer Suzanne Haag specifically, I was caught off guard. I am excited and freaked out to be performing this ballet in Eugene,” says Tracy, born and raised in Eugene. “It was something I had never thought of. The fact that my arrangements and my new songs were already leaning toward a more atmospheric and cinematic style was a sign that I was on the right track to do something like this. It is very much a love letter to Eugene.”
Adds choreographer Suzanne Haag: “Her music is both deeply personal and wholly universal. Her lyrics speak to her own experiences as a woman and as a musician, and yet they feel like they were written for all of humanity. What drew me to want to create to this catalogue was the fact that Tracy’s perspective is one of a creator and performer, which has so many intersecting points to my own world of dance performance. I hope my choreography is an honest if abstract representation of Tracy’s gorgeous, powerful, human music. Every note of hers is an homage to what it is like to be a performer, to make art, to be a person, and to love in this complicated and beautiful world. I am so grateful to Tracy for this collaboration.”
Tickets available here: https://eugeneballet.org/performances/tracy-bonham/
In addition to these performances, Tracy will be co-headlining a handful of West Coast dates with Jill Sobule, with more dates to be announced. “After the ballet performances, I am looking forward to touring with Jill, playing Summerfest in Milwaukee in June with subsequent shows in Chicago and Minneapolis,” she says excitedly. (dates below)
With the new single and the performances all set up, she is planning more music in 2024 to make up for the lost time that the pandemic wrought on the music world. “I am also excited about the release of my new album, Damn The Sky (For Being Too Wide),” Tracy hints with a sense of pride mixed with mental and physical exhaustion from all the recording and planning. “Lastly, I am really looking forward to taking a much-needed break.”
