Reflections with a Musical Legacy

SoCal native Karla Bonoff came of age during the early days of the emergence of the singer-songwriter in Los Angeles, playing her original songs on open mic nights at the famous Troubadour in the late ‘60s, where she met lifelong friends Kenny Edwards, Wendy Waldman, and Andrew Gold. The foursome formed Bryndle and made a record that was ahead of its time and got shelved not long before the Eagles and Crosby, Stills and Nash broke through. Instead, Edwards and Gold joined Linda Ronstadt’s band, brought some of Bonoff’s songs to the singer, who recorded them for her Hasten Down the Wind album. 

The attention got Bonoff signed to her own record deal at Columbia where she made three albums produced by Edwards full of songs that still soar today. Although Bonoff never enjoyed the huge success of Ronstadt and others who have covered her songs throughout the decades, Bonoff has enjoyed universal critical acclaim and unbridled respect from her peers as well as a loyal audience. 

Due to Bonoff moving to Montecito in the mid-1990s, we’ve had regular opportunities to share evenings of songs with their composer in stripped-down formats, first in a trio with bassist-singer Edwards – who lived in her guest house before his death in 2010 – and guitarist Nina Gerber, then as a duo with Gerber. The songs will reverberate unadorned again at the Lobero on Friday, February 4, when the next Bonoff concert, twice postponed by the pandemic, finally takes place. 

She talked about her career, new songs, and new albums late last week. 

Q. You released your first album in years, Carry Me Home, in 2019. Other than the title song and one each by Jackson Browne and Kenny Edwards, the albums featured songs from your career going back to the ‘70s. What was the impetus?

A. I’ve been playing these songs live for a really long time with Kenny and with Nina [Gerber], and they had just changed so much over many years it seemed like we should just record the stuff the way we play it. It was meant to be the kind of thing where we’d go into the studio quickly and just get it done, but it turned into a longer project because I was working with [producer] Robinson Eikenberry, and he passed away right in the middle of it. So I ended up finishing it with Sean McCue (the former Summercamp singer-songwriter turned composer/producer). But I’m happy we did it, because the way we play things now is a lot different than the original records with a very different approach and I wanted to document that. 

What is it about Nina that makes her a good partner for you?

She’s an incredible talent, so musical, and she can really play. She’s playing the guitar, but half the time it sounds like she’s playing strings and other instruments in the way she wraps herself around my songs. It was Kenny and Nina and I, but when he passed away, it morphed into the two of us. We’ve got the right chemistry. We travel well together and play well together, so it works. 

You seem to have also clicked with Sean as you made your first-ever Christmas album with him in 2020. Why now after so many years?

It was early in the pandemic and all my shows were postponed and Sean and I were just sitting around wondering what to do. My manager suggested cutting a holiday song and Sean came up with an arrangement for “Silent Night.” That came out really cool so we kept going because it turned into an activity that was fun and comforting to fill up the summer while we were stuck at home. We were just having so much fun doing it. Suddenly we had an album, and I ended up feeling pretty proud of it because it wasn’t things like “Jingle Bells” – it had my stamp on it. We re-released it last year with a new track with Michael McDonald singing “O come, O come, Emmanuel” with me. That was great, because I’ve known him as a friend and opened for him in concert for years, but I’ve never really had an opportunity to invite him to sing before. 

Listening to your old records from the ‘70s and ‘80s, and then the same songs again on Carry Me Home, I was struck by how with all of your songs, nothing sounds remotely dated in any way. They could have been written today just as easily. Things like “Someone to Lay Down Beside me,” “Lose Again,” “Home,” “Isn’t It Always Love” – they’re these beautiful, timeless songs about love and longing and relationships and life. They bring back memories from when I first heard them decades ago, but also resonate right now. So I’m wondering, how has your relationship to the songs shifted over the years? 

First of all, thanks for the compliment. The songs change as you change, and they take on different meanings over time. With some of them, I remember what or who they were about and other times it’s been so long that it’s hard to remember how I felt when I wrote them. But my best songs always feel good and are fun for me to play and the other ones fall by the wayside over time. They’re sort of like children; it’s hard to pick a favorite. 

Switching gears, I was reading the comments below the video for “Carry Me Home” on YouTube, and I noticed one that said she’d never heard of you until she noticed your name as a writer of a lot of Linda Ronstadt songs. She wrote: “I go back to the ‘seventies with Linda, but now I have a new singer-musician to listen to.” That’s kind of how it’s always been for you in a way, with others who have done your songs having bigger hits and fame. 

Obviously it’s frustrating, but Linda was already huge. I don’t know if I could have been like that. It’s kind of funny that someone’s only finding that out now, but it’s cool that it’s viable enough for people to still be discovering me now and getting into it. I never really liked all that music business stuff – who got promoted and who didn’t and who had hit singles and who didn’t. 

Would you have wanted to be that kind of rock star?

There were some things that could have gone better with record companies and promotion that would’ve maybe enabled me to have a bit of a bigger career, which would help me now. I think my first album had some hits on it that the record company didn’t quite get with. But it is what it is – you can’t look back on that. And you’re right, a lot of it has to do with how hungry and determined you are. I didn’t love being on the road and I like to be home and I really wasn’t driven enough to compete in that world. 

I think I have my own age on my mind, and I don’t want to be uncouth, but I know you just turned 70. How does that land in your world? 

It doesn’t feel wonderful and it also doesn’t feel possible. Wait, what? How did this happen? Time is just going so fast, so I’m mostly flummoxed by it, frankly. But I’m grateful that I’m really healthy and still able to travel and sing and garden and do all things I love to do – just make the most out of every day because if the pandemic taught us anything, it’s you never know.