PORT TOWNSEND — Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff, a musicians’ musician, will perform at Fort Worden Commons on Saturday night.
An Evening with Karla Bonoff, presented by Rainshadow Productions, will begin at 8 pm. at the commons at 200 Battery Way.
Tickets are $30. Ten percent of sales will support Centrum programming and scholarships. Tickets are available at Crossroads Music and Quimper Sound Underground in Port Townsend and online at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-bonofftickets.
“Long before Alanis [Morissette] and Jewel, there was a breed of singer/songwriters whose earthly anthems of soul-searching, heartache and joy touched souls in a way few can muster today,” said a Billboard magazine review of the 1999 album “All My Life — The Best of Karla Bonoff,” a 16-song collection spanning Bonoff’s career.
Bonoff has released eight albums, 16 singles and EPs, and worked with a variety of performers.
She was first known as a songwriter for such performers as Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt.
Her songs have been interpreted by other artists such as “Home” by Raitt, “Tell Me Why” by Wynonna Judd, “Isn’t It Always Love” by Lynn Anderson and “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me,” “If He’s Ever Near” and “Lose Again” by Ronstadt, as well as “All My Life” by Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, a duet that won the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.
In 1977, Columbia released “Karla Bonoff,” which established her as a singer-songwriter in her own right.
Born and raised in Southern California, Bonoff was a songwriter by the age of 15. She and her sister Lisa wrote and sang as a duo, The Daughters of Chester P, named after their father, Chester Paul Bonoff.
When she was 16, she auditioned with her sister for Elektra Records. An 11-song demo was recorded, but no deal came of this first effort, according to Bonoff’s website, www.karlabonoff.com.
Bonoff partnered with Kenny Edwards (who had started the Stone Ponies with Ronstadt and Bobby Kimmel), Wendy Waldman and Andrew Gold to create the band Bryndle.
The band made an album for A&M, but it was never released.
“I think they didn’t really know quite what to make of it,” Bonoff said on her website.
“This was right before Crosby, Stills and Nash, and before Fleetwood Mac. We were these two girls and two guys … the closest thing they could compare us to was the Mamas and the Papas.”
Bryndle broke up, but not before launching four careers. Edwards and Gold joined Ronstadt’s band, and through that connection, Ronstadt was to hear a demo of Bonoff’s.
Bonoff recalled playing a tape of “Lose Again” for her.
“Hey, you know that’s real good,” Bonoff remembered Ronstadt saying. “What else have you got?”
In her first album, she sang three songs made popular by Ronstadt and also “I Can’t Hold On” and the tune “Home,” which later wound up on Raitt’s “Sweet Forgiveness.”
Bonoff embarked on a solo tour to promote her album and, by the time she reached Seattle, “I Can’t Hold On” was No. 1 in the Pacific Northwest, according to her website.
“I was headlining and I barely had enough songs to play,” she recalled. “So I just kept playing them longer.”
Two subsequent albums were “Restless Nights,” released in 1979, and “Wild Heart of the Young,” released in 1982.
Bonoff released her fourth album, “New World” in 1988, which has been reissued by the Valley Entertainment label.
In 1990, Bonoff’s career came full circle when three of her new songs wound up on Ronstadt’s album “Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind.”
In 1993, “Tell Me Why,” sung by Judd — with Bonoff on acoustic guitar and Bryndle members singing backup vocals — was the title song to Judd’s second album.
The “Eight Seconds” soundtrack album, released in 1994, featured “Standing Right Next to Me” and a duet with Vince Gill on “When Will I Be Loved.”
Bryndle reformed and released a 14-song CD in 1995 and “House of Silence” in 2002.
In 2007, Bonoff released a live double CD, a project she had talked about for years.
“I think many of these songs have improved with age and and I have never really documented what we do.”
For more information about the Port Townsend performance, call 360-301-0291 or email centrumrecording @gmail.com.
