Bonnie Koloc (Remastered) Bonnie Koloc

• 1 Newport, Aug.14 03:17
• 2 Charmer 03:53
• 3 Sunday Morning Movies 03:25
• 4 Wind on the Water 04:13
• 5 On the Road 02:55
• 6 Mama's Blues 02:26
• 7 Kentucky Dream 03:56
• 8 Roll Away the Grey 02:26
• 9 My Aunt Edna 02:42
• 10 Roslyn 03:40
• Total Runtime 32:53

Info for Bonnie Koloc (Remastered)

Bonnie Koloc’s debut LP ‘After All This Time’ was released in 1971, the same year as John Prine and Steve Goodman released their debuts. While her contemporaries were signed by established labels (Atlantic and Buddah respectively), Koloc’s record came out on Ovation Records, a local Chicago label. It therefore never gained the traction to launch her career to the heights that many had predicted. However, her brand of psych-folk now sounds ahead of its time. There followed three more albums on Ovation. ‘Hold on to Me’ (1972), ‘Bonnie Koloc’ (1973), and ‘You’re Gonna Love Yourself in the Morning’ (1974) that contain much of her best work. What is perhaps most striking about them is the consistent level of performance that makes it difficult to recommend any one single release ahead of the others.

Bonnie Koloc was one of three performers who, during the early 1970s, made up the celebrated ‘Trinity of the Chicago Folk Scene’. The other two were John Prine and Steve Goodman. That in itself should be enough to make you sit up and take notice. However, Bonnie Koloc was far too good to be remembered only by this association; she was an exceptional artist in her own right.

Bonnie Koloc

Digitally remastered

Bonnie Koloc - Vocal
The enduring and versatile voice of Bonnie Koloc has been heard in Chicago since 1968. For a decade, Bonnie was a pivotal act at the Earl of Old Town, drawing crowds that stood in lines around the block, hoping, at least, for a place to stand to catch the hottest act in town. In time her folk-oriented style merged with jazz and blues, and her versatility took her to Mr. Kelly’s, a long-time Chicago landmark. While continuing to play at the Earl, Orphans and Holstein’s, she began appearing at festivals.

Along the way she received a Governor’s Award in 1973 for Best Singer, recorded ten albums, two of them with Epic. In 1984 her career took another turn when she starred in the Public Theater’s production of The Human Comedy, first earning her the theatre World Bronze Award for Outstanding New Talent on Broadway and a Drama Critics Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

In 1987, Bonnie returned to college to finish a B.A. in Art Education from the University of Northern Iowa. Since high school, Bonnie has shown a gift not only for acting but for fine art, and since 1987 she has been an active print maker, painter and ceramist. In the last eleven years she has had one-woman shows in the South and Midwest, including Chicago and Nashville. In 1999 she was distinguished by her inclusion in the National Exhibition of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society.

In 1996 Bonnie brought together her talents as a singer/songwriter and an artist in A Bestiary. A collection of linocuts, poetry, and music, A Bestiary captures thirteen beasts of the farm with a print, poem and song for each. This stunning work won Best in Show at the Iowa State Fair’s art salon in 1996. These art songs, written in the pentatonic scale, show Bonnie adding yet another dimension to her multi-faceted accomplishments. It is no coincidence that the Des Moines Register called her a “renaissance woman.” Copies of the limited edition set of A Bestiary have been acquired by individual collectors, the Iowa Arts Council, the Waterloo Art Center and Museum, and the special collections department of the Chicago Public Library. In 2003 Bonnie received a grant from the Iowa Arts Council to publish a trade edition of A Bestiary which was issued with a CD in 2005.

In 1997 Bonnie created a one-woman musical commissioned by the College of Du Page in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Set in the country of Trashmania, a land of artists and good dogs, the story centers around a woman’s attempts to fulfill her vocation a singer while regaling us with stories of her eccentric aunts, also artists, in the Royal Trashmanian Circus. For this musical Bonnie not only wrote music and lyrics for nineteen songs, but designed and built the set (which included her own paintings, prints, and drawings) and created all the costumes.

Bonnie has illustrated over a dozen books for Free River Press, published by her husband, former Chicago Tribune columnist Robert Wolf. Free River Press publications are collections of stories documenting life across America by people without literary ambition. Most recently Bonnie created the cover art and twenty linocut decorations for Robert’s latest book, Heartland Portrait: Stories From the Rural Midwest.

Bonnie’s collaboration with her husband has included work for his two books with Oxford University Press: An American Mosaic: Prose and Poetry by Everyday Folk and Jump Start: How to Write From Everyday Life.

Bonnie continues to pursue her music, performing and recording. She has recorded thirteen albums; recent CDs include “Timeless” (2004), a double CD of selections from mostly live performances between 1970 and 1995, “A Bestiary” (2005), a CD accompanying the art book described above, “Here To Sing” (2006), a studio recording and, most recently “Beginnings” (2009), a CD of selections from early live recordings by Rich Warren, primarily of performances at the legendary Chicago folk club, the Earl of Old Town.

This album contains no booklet.