The Wake

She started playing guitar at 14, started performing at 16 and went on her first tour at 19. Meet the new Minnesota superstar: Haley Bonar, who just recorded her third album.

Bonar and I sat down at the Spyhouse coffee shop at Nicollet and 25th. She munched on a muffin as we discussed her album, her family and her love life. Wearing tall and worn brown boots, black tights and a red mini skirt that was almost a perfect match to her hair Bonar started telling me she had just arrived home after traveling with her boyfriend (sorry guys) on a train from Minneapolis to Seattle. “It took almost two days,” Bonar said.

Bonar was born in Manitoba, but grew up in Rapid City, S.D. with three younger sisters. She got started playing in local coffee shops and at open mic nights in her hometown. Bonar has toured with the band Low down south and by herself out west. She even gave college a try at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Eventually, she settled in Minneapolis, where two of her sisters—who she says are her best friends— are currently living as well.

Bonar’s latest CD, Lure the Fox, was just picked up by local music label Afternoon Records. Bonar and her band, bassist singer Chris Morrissey, drummer Luke Andersen and guitarist Mike Michael, will be celebrating the release party at the Varsity Theater on November 25. The Get Up Johns, who Bonar describes as “super tight old school blue grass,” will open.

“Afternoon Records is super excited and are putting a lot of effort into putting it out,” Bonar said. The CD will hit stores on Nov. 22. “It’s pretty dirge-y, loose in a good way,” Bonar said, “but I am really, really proud of it.”

Bonar recorded her first album, Haley Bryn Bonar, in 2001 before she moved to Duluth. Her second album, The Size of Planets, was released on Chairkicker’s Union, a Duluth-based independent label in 2003. It was voted one of the best albums of 2003 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

According to Bonar, her new album is a lot different. She says some people feel that it is darker—and that Bonar “no longer sounds like a 12-year-old … I think it’s a good thing,” she says with a smile.

New tracks that you will want to check out include “Drinking Again,” “Ransom” and “Captain, Captain.” Bonar, who writes most of her own songs, says they “just sort of come to you.” “You figure out the melody and write some words over it. It’s not like writing poetry and turning it into a song, although it kind of started like that.” It’s what makes her songs unique, with Bonar allowing a part of herself into the songs, especially when you hear her sing live. “She lets you in to her intimate world of slow dances and low lighting,” the Varsity Theater’s website aptly observes.

Bonar recently won in two Minnesota Music Awards categories: “Best American Roots Artist” and “Best American Roots Recording” for Lure the Fox. According to Bonar, it’s kind of a big deal because you have to be a member to vote, so winning is kind of “elite.” “It looks good on my resume,” she says. “It shows that someone thinks I am good.”

After her show at the Varsity Theater, Bonar and her band (minus the guitarist) will be heading out on tour, stopping in Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Oregon and Illinois. Catch her in town before she’s lured from the Midwest.

Haley Bonar will perform at the Varsity Theater on November 25. Doors are at 7 p.m., tickets are $10 for the all-age show; , .