Tracy Bonham

 “a riveting, complicated maker of pop music.
She is the kind of songwriter who uses pop conventions intelligently, then also
dashes them.”-Popmatters

“Tracy's
a beautiful, wild spirit and I'm honored to have played a small part on her
mighty new record.”-Langhorne Slim

Musical journeywoman, Tracy
Bonham has announced the release of her new album Wax & Gold for August
21st.  This is her first new
album in over five years and was entirely funded by fans through Pledge Music.  All recording was done in Woodstock, NY with Producer
Kevin Salem (Yo La Tengo, Rachael
Yamagata) and a talented group of friends (including Langhorne Slim as well as Amy
Helm)

The resulting album
is her most immediate, intimate and at times, very rootsy.  First single “Luck” balances beauty with some down n dirty blues guitar.  While the title track, which is immediately
catchy has a timeless Americana feel, driven by acoustic guitar and deftly
picked ukele (played by Jim Boggia). 

Watch the
official lyric video for “Luck” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owc3kw_eSDA

Lyrically Bonham admits that Wax & Gold is also her most personal work.  Inspired entirely by her five year old son,
and defining her own notion of family.  On
the experience Bonham relates “In-between the last album (2010’s Masts
Of Manhatta) and this one, my husband and I adopted a son.  He comes from Ethiopia and the international adoption
process was very long and arduous.  These
past years of meeting him, adopting him and settling into a parental role has
been immensely fulfilling on a spiritual level.   It’s amazing to me how parents and children
who come from opposite sides of the world can come together and their history,
their culture becomes interwoven.

I wrote a song for this album called ‘This Here’s My Grandpa’s Guitar’ and it’s about this Baritone Ukele
he used to play from the 50’s or 60’s. 
It was a part of my memories of him and now it’s in our house and so
it’s part of my son’s life.  It’s a
connection between this long-gone man from Oregon and this boy from Ethiopia
and both of them very dear to my definition of family.”

These metaphors and messages are referenced in the album’s title
as well.  Wax & Gold being derived from a term used in Ethiopian
literature and culture.  A term meant to
describe a way of telling stories that have two meanings, Wax for the
superficial meaning while the gold is the true meaning.

At the close of this year it will mark the 20th
anniversary of Bonham’s Gold-selling debut The Burdens Of Being Upright (Island
Records).  Initially pegged into the
alterna-grrl category due to breakaway single, “Mother Mother” Bonham quickly dispelled that title with music that
jumps from folk, blues, country and rock within a single album.

In addition to four previously released full-length and
three EP’s, Bonham has toured extensively as a vocalist/ violinist for The Blue Man Group during their live
music arena tours, as well as featured vocalist on Aerosmith's Blues album entitled Honkin On Bobo, and a
brief stint as violinist with Jimmy Page
and Robert Plant.

www.tracybonham.com

Contact @ annie@uniphigood.com | 917.674.1249