Karla Bonoff Official Site | BIOGRAPHY (2023)

Born and raised in Southern California, Karla Bonoff was a songwriter by the age of fifteen. She and her sister Lisa wrote songs and performed as a duo titled "The Daughters of Chester P" in honor of their father, Dr. Chester Paul Bonoff, on. Already in love with the guitar, he studied with Frank Hamilton of the famous folk group The Weavers. At the age of 16, Karla and her sister Lisa auditioned for Elektra Records. An 11-song demo [recorded by Doors engineer Bruce Botnick] was recorded, but there was no consensus on that first attempt.

Karla's sister became a history and religion teacher, but Karla's passion has always been music. She made friends with other singer-songwriters and musicians [in the '60s] who created their own unique sound. She tells of queuing in front of the legendary Troubadour on Monday lunchtimes in order to get a seat at the Troubadour's famous "Scream" on Monday night, which has been a staple for many artists who have had great success. She says: “It was an incredible time. Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Elton John were in the Troubadour at the time.” There were a few other singer-songwriters who befriended Karla and eventually decided to form a band. They were Kenny Edwards (who had formed the Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt and Bobby Kimmel), Wendy Waldman and Andrew Gold. Something powerful in their combined sound brought them together. That's how the band Bryndle was born, one of the earliest songwriting groups, even before the Eagles. The band made an album for A&M, but it was never released. Unfortunately, they were ahead of their time.

Karla says about the A&M project: “They didn't publish it. I don't think they really knew what to make of it. That was right before Crosby, Stills and Nash and before Fleetwood Mac. We were these two girls and two boys. ... They could compare us best with the mums and dads. In fact, they [Mamas and Papas producer] asked Lou Adler to produce a single to try and make us like that. If we had stayed together, I think we could have done well." A single was released from those sessions, with Karla singing, but it failed to boost the band's career. "It was a hit in Santa Maria [California]," recalls Karla. Bryndle fell apart, but put up four very illustrious runs. Kenny and Andrew joined Linda Ronstadt's band, and through that connection Ronstadt heard a demo from her. Karla recalls giving her a cassette of " Lose Again." "Hey, you know, that's really good," Bonoff recalls to Ronstadt, "what else do you have?" There were three on Linda's Hasten Down the Wind album [released in 1976]. Bonoff Songs: "Someone to Lay Down Beside Me", "If He's Ever Near" and "Lose Again".

While Ronstadt was scoring hits with songs by Karla Bonoff, Karla herself signed to Columbia Records as a solo artist in 1977. There she not only recorded the three songs that Linda had made, but also the hit single "I Can't Hold On". . and the song "Home," which later ended up on one of Bonnie Raitt's albums. The producer of that great first album [and the next two] was Karla's old friend and business partner Kenny Edwards. Bonoff then embarked on a solo tour to promote his album, and by the time he got to Seattle, "I Can't Hold On" was #1 in the Pacific Northwest. "I was headlining and barely had enough songs to play," Karla recalls, still in awe of the memory. "So I played longer!" From there he took coveted spots on major tours, opened for James Taylor and Jackson Browne, and earned rave reviews in Time magazine. Two subsequent albums, Restless Nights [released 1979] and Wild Heart of the Young [released 1982] established Karla as one of the finest recording artists and songwriters in Los Angeles. Musicians like Russ Kunkel, Joe Walsh, Waddy Wachtel, Danny Kortchmar, Don Henley, Timothy Schmit, Peter Frampton, Bill Payne, J.D. Souther and his former Bryndle collaborators Wendy Waldman, Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards helped create it. these wonderful records. Bonoff had a big hit with "Personaly" off her Wild Heart of the Young album, a song Karla didn't write. "I'm sure there are people who only know me for this song, but I really enjoyed singing and recording it."

Their fourth album, New World [first released 1988], was originally released on Gold Castle and is now available on the Valley Entertainment label. Karla began touring in Japan, where audiences fell in love with her and where she became, and still is, a hugely successful artist. There was film work: you and J.D. Souther wrote songs for the film About Last Night. He is also the voice of the Tom Snow/Dean Pitchford song "Somebody's Eyes" from Footloose. In 1994, Karla had an AC top ten single with a song from the movie 8 Seconds called "Standing Right Next to Me". This track was produced by the legendary Keith Thomas (longtime Karla fan) and written with his former partner Wendy Waldman. Over the years, Karla has continued to do what she does best. He has toured with Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, J.D. Souther and others garnering passionate audiences, resulting in sold-out venues everywhere. In 1990, strange things started happening in Karla's life. His career has closed. She wrote three songs that ended up on her old friend Linda Ronstadt's album Cry Like a Rainstorm, Howl Like the Wind. "All My Life," a duet with Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, won the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. People magazine ranked "All My Life" as one of their top 5 most popular wedding songs.

In 1993, Karla's song "Tell Me Why", sung by the legendary Wynonna Judd [with Karla on guitar and Bryndle members on backing vocals], was the title track of Wynonna's second album and was a smash hit. The Eight Seconds soundtrack album [released in 1994] included the aforementioned "Standing Right Next to Me" and a duet with Vince Gill on "When Will I Be Loved" [a '70s hit for Linda Ronstadt] that featured Karlas Sound taken to a new level brought even wider country music audiences.

Karla and her three former partners Kenny Edwards, Andrew Gold and Wendy Waldman decided it was time to get Bryndle back together. The idea had always been there, but now that everyone was finding plenty of success for themselves, there was so much more to the Bryndle experience. “When we decided to get this band back together,” explains Bonoff, “we realized that one of the things that went wrong the first time was that we all wrote separately. We thought it would be cool to write together this time.” It was new and a lot of fun, the four of us. Twelve of the 14 songs on Bryndle's CD were written by the group. In the fall of 1995, after four years of hard work, Bryndle's first CD was released, which was released in the US and Japan. The band toured Japan over the summer and then embarked on a tour of the United States. Karla has had some amazing hits on record and on stage. "On the Wind," "Under the Rainbow," and "Daddy's Little Girl" shook the house every night, no matter where Bryndle played. Bonoff's fans flocked to the shows, excited to see her with her old friends having the time of their lives. In 1996 Andrew Gold left the band, but Bryndle continued performing through the summer of 1997.

A duet with the Dirt Band, You Believed in Me, written with Wendy Waldman, was released on a prestigious MCA album in honor of the 1996 Olympics in January of that year.

In 1999, Sony/CBS Legacy released All My Life - The Best of Karla Bonoff, a fully remastered 16-song collection spanning Karla's entire career. Included on the CD is a lengthy article by Billboard Editor-in-Chief Timothy White and an interview with Karla.

Progress on Bryndle's next CD [working title "Bryndle 2"] stopped and started after 1997 and for a few years it looked like there would be no further release from the band. At one point, parts of the unfinished digital recordings of "Bryndle 2" were lost to a hard drive failure, a near-fatal omen for the project. Meanwhile, Karla [accompanied by Kenny Edwards] began touring more as a solo artist since Bryndle stopped performing live.

In 2001 the enthusiasm for the project "Bryndle 2" grew within the band and the recording speed was intensified. Regular sessions took place at Kenny's studio in Santa Barbara and Wendy's "Long House Studio" in the San Fernando Valley. Former bandmate Andrew Gold also contributed to the recording. Finally, in the first week of 2002, "House of Silence", Bryndle's second collection of songs, was released independently. Although the recording feels different compared to the first album, it still reflects the unique sound these artists create when their talents merge. Signed copies of this CD are available atKarla Bonoff Storeand was published in Japan by Japan/JVC. Karla often performs the song "(My Heart Is) Like A Compass" from this release when she's touring.

In November 2002, Karla, Kenny Edwards and Wendy Waldman played together for the first time in over 4 years under the Bryndle banner. The setting was an intimate concert in the Los Angeles area. Rumors about a CD release of "The House Concerts" made the rounds. Although there are no plans for Bryndle at this time, the members remain friends and there is always the possibility of future recordings and performances.

In a 2000 magazine article, Karla described herself as "semi-retired" and content to go on short trips a few times a month. But he also talked about recording a new album, maybe at home. "I'd like to make an album all for myself, one that isn't defined by what other people in the industry think it should be," he said. "I don't have to go to an audition. I don't need a record company to pay for it. I can put it on the internet and it's free. If a record company picks it up, great." If they don't, it doesn't matter."

"I've always had someone who was mad at me for not making records to keep up," says Bonoff, who writes about four songs a year. "I'm not really productive, I think I've spent so much time putting a round pencil in a square hole that I've worked my way to the point where I don't want to write anymore. And I got a bad taste in my mouth about not being able to just be myself. I think in the time that I've gotten off the ground I've seen music change to the point where I really see songwriters, and women in particular, being able to write whatever they want to write. You know what? Write what you want and I'll make the record I want.'" When it arrives, a new collection of Karla Bonoff songs will be just the ticket. Vision of what it should sound like, and the wait was worth it.

Finally, in 2007, Karla released a live double CD, a project she had been talking about for years. "I think a lot of these songs got better over time and I've never really documented what we do." Karla recorded all but one of the songs at a small club in Santa Barbara with her longtime touring band Kenny Edwards and Nina Gerber, as well as Scott Babcock on drums.

Karla continues to perform in the United States. Karla often chats with fans after her shows and signs used CD and LP covers that people bring to her shows. Japan has also been very supportive of Karla's music and she has toured there twice in recent years. An expanded version of his Best Of CD collection and Bryndle's House of Silence was released in Japan in 2002.

Unfortunately, in the summer of 2010, Kenny Edwards required an emergency flight to Southern California and was hospitalized with rapidly progressing prostate cancer. He passed away peacefully on August 18 in Santa Barbara, California amid a flood of loving words, thoughts, generosity and kindness from friends and fans around the world. Karla expressed her loss: "I want to thank Kenny for being my teacher, my musical partner and my best friend for the past forty-three years."

Karla's legacy as a writer and tenacity as an artist are best described in a Billboard magazine review of Karla's recording of All My Life. "Long before Alanis and Jewel, there was a generation of singer-songwriters whose earthy hymns of soulsearching, heartbreak and joy touched souls in a way few today can muster."