Ray Bonneville
Artist
Bio
Ray Bonneville
calls himself a North American. His last 30 years have been
spent absorbing life, playing music, and traveling all over
the US, Canada, and Europe, but his dual citizenship recently
settled into a seasonal migration that suits him fine: summers
in a Montreal apartment and winters in an old house in Cotter,
Arkansas, within walking distance of the White river, very good
trout water. When Bonneville isn't on the road - a third home
for him after all these years - those two havens are the place
where he stays connected to the music that inspires him.
"When I first heard good blues and country music, I felt
a tremendous excitement, and I somehow knew right then what
I'd do with my life," says Bonneville, remembering his
introduction to roots music in Boston in the mid 1960s and early
seventies. Over the next decade, Bonneville honed his craft
in Colorado and Alaska, then moved between Seattle, New Orleans,
and Paris France in the 1980s.
"I remember playing in Memphis Slim's club in the heart
of Paris in the early eighties," says Bonneville. "I'd
show up for the gig at four in the morning after doing another
show across town. The place would be full and jumping at that
time of the night. Memphis Slim was often there, as were other
jazz and blues players, and a whole slew of late night characters
from all kinds of places. After the show I'd take a taxi back
to my flat around eight in the morning in the full on Paris
rush hour traffic."
In the streets and clubs of New Orleans, Bonneville soaked up
the prevalent take-your-time attitude that ran through the music
being played there. "There were so many great drummers
to learn groove and time from, not to mention the piano and
guitar players, and man, the singers and horn players too! This
was the place that influenced me the most," he says. "It
was infectious. In New Orleans, you learn that solid rhythm
is like a tightrope on which the notes can do their dance."
Although he has absorbed many influences, Bonneville's musical
cocktail is all his own. Well-formed and cohesive, it sits in
a tremendously powerful groove. For his highly percussive electric
guitar sound, Ray uses his index finger, his thumb, the back
end of his hand, sometimes a slide, and a Fender tube amp. His
weathered, story-telling vocals are recognizable anywhere, and
his intricate but understated rack harmonica playing comes right
from the gut. To add another layer of rhythm, Bonneville brings
his foot down on an amplified piece of plywood on the floor.
The result is a big sound with an almost primitive quality and
a lot of forward momentum. It's visceral, bluesy, and aimed
at the belt.
Says Bonneville; "I'm simply in love with playing live
music. It's the time and place where I really live, where I
feel the most happy and alive. When a show is over, I just want
to get on down the road to the next one, always looking to get
back onto another stage and do it again. I write the songs as
they come to me, without predictability or in any set way. They
come from real life mostly, snapshots of emotions and feelings
lived, and the recall of observations of things gone by along
the way. I'm forever looking to write another song, find another
groove."
Ray won the prestigious Juno award in Canada in 1999, the Canadian
equivalent of the American Grammy, for his third album Gust
of Wind. His fourth release, Rough Luck, was also nominated
for the coveted award. Ray's newest recording, Roll it Down,
is due out in the spring of 2003. It's his fifth recording of
original songs, and is co-produced with Colin Linden and Rob
Heaney. About the new release, Ray says, " We made this
record over the last year and a half, in Montreal and Nashville.
These songs have been with me for a while, and I'm thrilled
they've found their home on this record. Right after a tour
with percussionist and friend Geoff Arsenault, we went into
the studio and laid down several tracks, and that's how this
project was born ".
