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Bonham’s debut, The Burdens of Being Upright, achieved Gold Record status in 1996, spawning the chart-topping hit “Mother Mother” which has remained a powerful anthem for disenfranchised youth all over the world.
Due to major shake-ups in the music industry Bonham’s second release, Down Here (Island), was significantly delayed. While continuing to tour the world including several dates with Lilith Fair (1997 and 1998), the industry’s landscape had become unrecognizable. This inspired Tracy to rethink how she approached the music business and her songwriting. She asked Island 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. She sold over 12,000 CDs on her own (an unprecedented achievement for that time without record label, management, or radio play) and was able to self-fund her next album.
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. Bonham has released several more albums to wide critical acclaim, has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno multiple times and has landed several songs in feature films and popular tv shows.
Tracy Bonham is an artist who has never ceased growing and has never stopped challenging herself, her own talents, or her audience. As PopMatters aptly describes “Bonham, from the beginning and increasingly over time, is a riveting, complicated maker of pop music.” Her album, Modern Burdens, 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 new material on a West Coast tour with the plan of recording an album upon her return home to New York. On the nearly empty plane home on March 15, 2020, Bonham made the decision to shift gears knowing that it would be some time before another tour could take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking action during quarantine, Tracy uncovered the finished recordings for what would become an entirely new endeavor called Melodeon Music House, pointing toward a younger audience who she 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. Teaming up with her touring partner, Rene Hart (renowned jazz bassist), Tracy Bonham & Melodeon Music House will release their first album entitled Young Maestros Vol. 1 on April 16, 2021, on Melodeon Music House Records.
