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All Music Guide:
Born near Winnipeg, raised in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and later based in St. Paul, MN, singer/songwriter Haley Bonar is in the same musical orbit of the dreamy Minnesotans Low. (Her debut album, The Size of Planets, was even released on Low leader Alan Sparhawk's own label, Chairkicker's Union.) However, her sparse take on folk-rock displays little of Low's narcotic gloom, and more pertinent comparisons include Mazzy Star, Shannon Wright, and Elliott Smith. Accompanying herself alternately on acoustic guitar and a single Fender Rhodes electric piano, often without a rhythm section, Bonar delivers her minor-key tunes and elliptical lyrics in a haunting, delicate voice at times reminiscent of both Aimee Mann and Gillian Welch.
Bonar moved from South Dakota to the Twin Cities to attend college as an English literature major, but when Sparhawk met the young singer/songwriter at a showcase for young talent, he offered her a spot opening for Low on an upcoming tour. Barely out of her teens, Bonar left school and began working with Sparhawk (who provided some additional guitar loops) and Low producer Eric Swanson on her debut album, The Size of Planets, which was released in 2003. An even more accomplished follow-up, Lure the Fox, followed in late 2006, and Bonar subsequently toured alongside fellow musician Andrew Bird; she also contributed vocals to Bird's 2007 effort, Armchair Apocrypha. She released her fourth album, 2008's Big Star, at the age of 24.
Wikipedia:
Haley Bonar (born 1983, Brandon, Manitoba) is a US alternative country singer-songwriter who hails from South Dakota. She has lived in Duluth and St. Paul, Minnesota. In July 2009, she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she spent a year writing songs for her newest album Golder, which was released April 19, 2011. She plays mostly acoustic guitar and a rhodes or wurlitzer organ, either solo or with her Minneapolis-based band, including Jeremy Ylvisaker and Mike Lewis of Andrew Bird fame, as well as long time band mates Luke Anderson on drums and Jacob Hanson on guitar.
In 2003 Bonar's album . . . The Size of Planets (Chairkicker's Union) received favorable reviews in the Minneapolis press. The album spawned the single "Am I Allowed," which was played on college radio stations. Bonar was 20 years old when the album was released, and did a number of tours with Duluth band Low upon its release. She also toured with the likes of Mason Jennings, Richard Buckner, Rivulets and Mary Lou Lord, who was also, for a time, Bonar's manager.
In 2006 she released the album Lure the Fox, originally on Mary Ellen Recordings, whose owner, Mary Lewis, decided to help Bonar pay to record the album at Pachyderm Studio after reading a Star Tribune article about her in 2005. Dave King of Happy Apple and The Bad Plus plays drums, Chris Morrissey plays bass, and the album features Low's Alan Sparhawk on the track "Give it Up." Also on that track is David Frankenfeld, Bonar's former drummer, who played on The Size of Planets. One year after Lure the Fox was recorded, Bonar signed with local label Afternoon Records, who then released the album nationally in October 2006.
Lure the Fox earned Bonar two Minnesota Music Awards, one for Best American Roots recording, and another for Best American Roots artist. The album also topped many Twin Cities year-end favorite lists, including those of the Star Tribune, City Pages, The Onion, and Pulse magazine. Bonar was also featured on the cover of Metro magazine.
Big Star, released in June 2008 on Afternoon Records, gained Bonar a broader audience with songs like "Big Star," "Green Eyed Boy," and "Arms of Harm," which was featured on the credits for an episode of Showtime's The United States of Tara. The songs "Queen of Everything," "Big Star," and "Something Great" were also featured on MTV's show Teen Moms in 2009/2010.
Bonar is featured on the 2007 Andrew Bird record Armchair Apocrypha and has frequently shared the stage with Bird over the past five years. She sang on the feature song "Quiet Breathing" from the independent film Sweet Land, directed by fellow Minnesotan Ali Selim.
In 2009, Bonar's move from Minneapolis to Portland, Oregon was noted by City Pages. She returned to the Twin Cities in July 2010 and again became very active in the Minneapolis music scene. Upon completion of her album Golder, she also started a side project band called Gramma's Boyfriend, a "no-wave, new wave, punkish kind of thing that sounds like the Twin Peaks High School prom band."Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).
