bonnie bishop

The first thing that registers about Bonnie Bishop’s stirring album The Walk is that the seasoned Grammy winner is no longer trying to outrun herself; she owns whatever has come her way, good wind or ill. It’s an uplifting confessional that she dedicates ‘to all who wander’ – laying down searing, emotionally-charged variations to award-winning producer Steve Jordan’s (Robert Cray, John Mayer, Buddy Guy) powerhouse production. She does so in a voice that aches and arches and grabs and never lets go. 

Blessed with an authentically resounding range, a blistering lyrical gift, and OK - she admits it - a couple of inherent vices that any God-fearing Americana/country/soul artist must wrestle with after years of bringing it live and in-color, Bishop has now broken free from the bust-boom mentality of Nashville to walk a line of her own making. The recipe may sound oversimplified, but it’s a frank, funny, ferocious, insightful Bonnie Bishop we encounter on this path; a recharged singer/songwriter full of grace. Her determination to put one foot in front of the other and find the road to reclamation shifted into overdrive when she left Nashville for her native Texas in 2017. Since then, she’s never looked back. The Walk soars as her most honest effort to date. It’s a groove-laden, lyrical lightning bolt from which the tonic of self-revelation pours forth on songs such as the grateful “Every Happiness Under The Sun” and the gut-wrenching “I Don’t Like To Be Alone.” The album’s euphoric closer, “Song Don’t Fail Me Now,” is Bonnie’s most heartfelt testament to date that music absolutely can still heal the spirit.

 

what people are saying


She has a beautiful soul, artistry, honesty and courage. Bonnie Bishop is as gifted a prose writer as she is a musician, not to mention she’s an incredible singer!
— Bonnie Raitt
A gifted songwriter and a powerhouse singer, her voice booms with the force of a Texas straight-line squall…brilliant.
— Nashville Scene
This is Bonnie Bishop’s triumphant homecoming, her declaration as an artist renewed … What did I just watch? I wonder. Then it hits me: greatness.
— Wide Open Country
‘Not Cause I Wanted To’ - 2012 Song of the Year!
— Jon Pareles, New York Times