Tracy Bonham + Jim Boggia + Bleu March 3, 2011

When Tracy Bonham set out to make her fourth full-length record, a lot had changed. She'd move back to Brooklyn, after spending three years in Los Angeles, had fallen in love and gotten married, and watched as the record industry cease to exist. "I had no idea how or when I was going to make my next record, let alone release one," says Bonham. "I started writing and it took shape organically." Bonham got together with guitarist Smokey Hormel (Tom Waits, Beck, Rufus Wainwright) and his "Roundup" trio in a Brooklyn studio and began cutting tracks that reflected the changes in her life in an honest, open way.

As on past efforts, romance, love and heartache make their appearance, but where Bonham's early vocal efforts displayed a rebellious snarl, the singer nowadays takes a softer, if no less direct, approach. Her wry wit, however, remains, conjuring up a mix of humor and despair on "Reciprocal Feelings": "I'd like to be my own best friend/Turns out there's no reciprocal feelings/What a total snob."

A native of Eugene, OR, Bonham began singing at age five, playing the violin at nine and piano at age 14. After earning a violin scholarship at University of Southern California, she transferred to Berklee College of Music to study voice and began writing and recording her own material. On her 1996 debut The Burdens of Being Upright, Bonham established herself as a brash rocker with ironic nods to the emerging music of punk grrrrl bands. With blunt, direct observations on love and loss, the album went gold and earned the singer Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Music Performance and Best Female Vocalist.

Critics took notice as well. Rolling Stone noted "this classically trained Boston singer-songwriter sets meandering Aimee Mann-like melodies over bright electro-pop folk with string-laden atmospherics." "Mother Mother", her first single, became a nationwide anthem and earned the singer an MTV Video Music Awards nomination. From the late 1990s to the mid 2000s, Bonham steadily recorded and performed both individually and with numerous groups, appearing with everyone from Blue Man Group and Aerosmith and to Ron Sexsmith and Juliana Hatfield. Following 2005's Blink the Brightest and the 2006 EP In the City + In the Woods, the singer took some time to focus on other things, earning a yoga teaching certification while learning to live a more balanced life, not realizing initially that her non-musical experiences would be fodder for what would eventually become Masts.
http://www.tracybonham.com/

The gifted pop-rocker's effusive words don't refer to the creation of his dynamic, highly personal new album, Four. Nor do they reflect his work as co-writer with chart-topping acts like the Jonas Brothers and Selena Gomez. Rather, they convey his response to the astonishing generosity of his fans, who helped him raise $40,000 following the launch of his campaign on DIY fundraising site Kickstarter.

As a result of fans' contributions, he's been able to launch his own record label and put Four out himself in North America (U.K. indie Lojinx acquired the rights to release the record across the pond).
In addition to his solo work, production projects (Drake Bell, TV/TV, Air Traffic Controller, Chris Mann) and commercial tunesmithery, Bleu has organized and/or lent his voice and playing to inventive side projects like the rock band The Major Labels (with his pals and fellow pop geeks Mike Viola and Ducky Carlisle); the one-off ELO tribute L.E.O. (featuring Andy Sturmer of power-pop legends Jellyfish, Hanson, Matt Mahaffey of Self, and countless other aficionados of Jeff Lynne's musical confections); LoudLion (with Taylor Locke of Rooney); and numerous others.

He's also toured widely, sharing stages of late with Rooney, The Posies, Katie Herzig, Graham Colton, Creed Bratton of The Office, John Doe, Mike Viola, Derek Webb and Drake Bell, joining Tracy Bonham for a string of dates in 2010, and performing intimate shows on his own - usually with just his acoustic guitar and an impressively large-sounding collection of loops and effects, but also sometimes as a duo with drummer Joe Seiders.

Such appearances are a chance for Bleu not only to display his uncanny way with a melody but also to express his gratitude to the fans who've made this new phase of his career possible.
http://www.bleutopia.com/

Boggia has gained impressive career momentum in a short amount of time. Blackberry selected one of his tracks for a new ad campaign and his songs have also been featured on MTV's Real World and ABC-TV's Men In Trees. He's developed a loyal grass-roots fan base for his dynamic, improvisational live shows. His work has been embraced by numerous fellow artists and kindred spirits, many of who have lent their talents to Boggia's albums. His sophomore release, Safe In Sound (2005, bluhammock music), featured key contributions from such notable admirers as Aimee Mann, Jill Sobule, MC5 guitar hero Wayne Kramer, Attractions drummer Pete Thomas and legendary '70s cult-pop icon Emitt Rhodes.
http://jimboggia.com/

Official Website: http://www.jamminjava.com/