Tracy Bonham preps new LP 'Damn The Sky (For Being Too Wide),' shares title track
Alternative rock lifer Tracy Bonham is gearing up to release a new album, Damn The Sky (For Being Too Wide). It follows 2017’s Modern Burdens, a reworking of her classic 1996 debut LP The Burdens of Being Upright, and her 2021 album for kids Young Maestros Vol. 1. Most details are TBA, but the title track premieres in this post, ahead of its official release this Friday (3/22). Listen below.
“This album is really about getting back up after some major personal challenges – divorce, isolation before and during the pandemic, and a very recent cancer diagnosis that was only detected a couple of months ago,” Tracy says. “I am more aware and awake than I have ever been and I truly understand how I have allowed relationships and situations to take over my life to the point where I have neglected myself, my mental and emotional health. Now it has manifested in the physical. I am incredibly lucky to have caught breast cancer early and if I hadn’t made the recent decision to start focusing on me, and advocating for myself in all areas of my life, I might not have caught it when I did. Many women and mothers have a tendency to put themselves last in order to make everyone else happy but it usually backfires and it has the exact opposite outcome. I was becoming a shell of myself, depleted, and I realized that nobody else could save me, it had to come from within.”
“Over the past several years I did a ton of work on myself to get to where I am now; being able to speak up for myself and placing loving boundaries for those who did not understand the value of them,” she continues. “It just so happens that when you start to get things right, your body still needs to catch up. So I believe that my recent cancer diagnosis is residual toxicity from a time when I was riddled with anxiety and fear unable to speak up and get the help I needed. This is only a personal attempt to make sense of things in my life and it may or may not be true. I certainly am not saying this is true for anyone else. I’m actually quite grateful for this lesson but again, I am incredibly lucky to even be able to look at it from this vantage point!”
The title track is an orchestral piano ballad made with jazz musicians Rebe Hart (upright bass) and Alvester Garnett (drums), and Tracy says, “I am really enjoying exploring the intersections and overlaps of where classical and jazz meet without excluding my alternative rock sensibilities. These dudes can rock too. The three of us playing together is definitely my happy place.”
“This song wrote itself one day as I sat down at the piano,” she continues. “I was having trouble in my marriage. Things were really difficult and I was desperate for a loving supportive connection, especially when the pressures and demands of parenting became overwhelming. When parents face challenges in the home it’s important to feel the support and acceptance from the people closest to you. We were older and our families were spread out across the country. We didn’t have a village. I had realized that the truly loving, supportive, and accepting people in my life were thousands of miles away” she continues. “I was missing my family and friends in Oregon… the people who accept me for who I am and support me in ways where I feel encouraged and empowered rather than criticized. I was wishing I could just shrink the sky and bring my loved ones closer to me so I could feel their love, support and acceptance. It was a very lonely time.”
Tracy has a collaboration with Oregon’s Eugene Ballet taking place in April, where she and her band will perform live will the ballet “transforms her music into dance,” followed by four West Coast shows with Jill Sobule. All dates are listed below.
Tracy Bonham — 2024 Tour Dates
with Eugene Ballet:
Apr 6 Eugene, OR Eugene Ballet
Apr 7 Eugene, OR Eugene Ballet
Co-bill with Jill Sobule:
Apr 8 Seattle, WA Rabbit Box Theater
Apr 9 Portland, OR White Eagle Saloon
Apr 12 Albany, CA The Ivy Room
Apr 13 Los Angeles, CA Hotel Café
Jun 27 Milwaukee, WI Uline Warehouse Stage (Summerfest)
