Nothing but good karma for Linda Bonadies’ sophomore set Karma. One would never guess that this talented singer/songwriter took a 15 year absence from music. The superb quality of these ten songs would suggest that Bonadies has been writing and singing all her life. Her maturity lends itself to both her lyrics and vocal performance – but there is nothing matronly about Karma. Bonadies’ panache gives her music an unassuming, friendly vibe, like that of a good role model or mentor. Her voice is stripped of any girlish qualities but rather exudes confidence and a graceful presence, like Stevie Nicks minus the excessive vibrato (thankfully).
The opening title track is catchy and upbeat with repetitive “da da daas” that cannot help but get stuck in your head. The straight ahead melody is a simplistic definition of karma itself: what goes around comes around. David Coe’s electric guitar solo in the bridge continues this accessible trend by only slightly straying from the melody with his embellishments. Ultimately Karma ends with another tune at almost the same tempo to neatly wrap the album and bring it full circle. “Lead With Your Heart” continues with the realistic, self-analyzing lyrical advice that brushes up but never slips into the realm of cliché.
Sandwiched in between these two numbers is a fabulous array of adult contemporary gems. Bonadies conveys that life is not always rosy in “Runaway Train.” The well-written instrumental opening is accentuated with piano atop quick percussion. By the second verse a nice string arrangement has entered the mix. As the song progresses, so does the wall of sound until the coda where the electric guitar plays over the percussion and ends with a stinger. The most unique track on Karma is “Stir Crazy.” It strays from the pop realm and hinges on a more hard/Goth rock feel with a heavy amount of echo effect on Bonadies’ voice and a repetitive, singular note melody. The suspended cymbal and strings add to the dramatic effect and is an excellent departure from all the other songs on the album.
One of the most delightful qualities of Bonadies’ songwriting is her exquisite ability of making the most of her background vocals. “Take Nothing For Granted” exhibits excellent vocal layering wrapped around Kerry Takahashi’s lovely cello work. The background vocals in the innocent love song “For A Night” have an endearing Carpenters quality, minus their signature oboe/trumpet solo. The countermelody in “The Way It Is” is first rate with more notable acoustic guitar work by Coe. Bonadies’ confident vocals are never grating but can at times have a rough curl around her “r” sounds. This makes the duet “You” with Tony Burnett not work quite as well. Both vocal deliveries are great but their voices are not the best compliment for each other. At times Burnett’s vocal line is above Bonadies’ yet her voice is not quite so low that it makes for the song to have an overall excess of treble sounds.
Nonetheless, the blend on the entire album is great, Bonadies’ songwriting skills are phenomenal and the music loving community is incredibly fortunate to have such a talented artist back in our midst again.
Review by Kelly O’Neil
Linda Bonadies - Powerful Songwriter!: Press/Reviews
Karma CD Reviews
by Carla Brand Breitner
The ten tracks on singer/songwriter Linda
Bonadies’ new CD “Karma” carry the listener
along on a beat-driven, melodic primer for
getting through life, mostly in control. The
title track is an upbeat anthem with the refrain
“What you do comes
back to you.” And
Ms. Bonadies is off
through songs about
love and living.
“You” is a
rollicking duet to
best friends with
singer Tony Burnett.
The ballads, “The
Way It Is” and
“Take Nothing for
Granted,” celebrate
life lessons taken
and given. And then
Bonadies jumps on
a “Runaway Train”
for a bluesy, driving
reflection on lives that have gone tragically
out-of-control.
David Coe’s excellent, haunting guitar
supports this track. “Stir Crazy” is the flip
side of “Runaway Train.” The singer is stuck
in a “dead end I’ll have to fight.” Bonadies
draws on her inner Kurt Weill and her training
as a composer to dramatically orchestrate
this track. Emotionally “Hold Me” contrasts
couples estranged and reaching for closeness.
The ballad builds from a simple keyboard
accompaniment to a choral call-out supported
by cellos.
“The Flow” looks merrily forward to “time
to let it go.” You might even find yourself
singing along with “it will be all right.” Next
a gentle love song,
“For a Night.” The
final track, “Lead
With Your Heart,”
brings the CD full
circle.
This celebration
of risk and joy
swings along quite
happily as it builds
to a rousing series of
choruses, sending the
listener away happy
and fulfilled.
Linda Bonadies
delivers her songs
with a slightly
raw, emotional
voice backed by her own Carole Kinginspired
keyboard. “Karma” benefits from
her harmonic arrangements for guitar, bass,
drums, percussion and, on various tracks,
cello, horns and background vocals.
Bottom line? “Karma” is a soft rock, adult
pop exuberance.
Linda Bonadies’ music is available on
iTunes and Amazon, as well as www.
lindabonadies.com.
Linda Bonadies – Karma
CD Review By Brooke Mason
Songsalive! member Linda Bonadies’ latest album Karma is her second release following her
2004 debut No Regret. The upbeat title track sucks you in with a joyful message of becoming a self fulfilling prophecy by putting positive energy out into the universe. Also what stands out here, and throughout this album, is Linda’s gift of composition garnered at Bucknell University and Hartt School of Music. Linda’s musical knowledge comes through in her breakdown structures on songs like Karma and The Flow. My favorite track on this album is Stir Crazy with its highly skilled minor chord compositions that fit the lyrical theme.
Vocally I would compare Bonadies more to Carly Simon than Carole King. Linda’s vocal delivery is consistent throughout the album. Lyrically as well, I find the comparisons more akin to the emotional rawness of Carly Simon’s Itsy Bitsy Spider. Linda’s lyrics allude to a lifetime of garnered wisdom on songs like Lead With Your Heart and Take Nothing For Granted. The best representation of Linda’s writing skills on this album is The Flow. After comparing a fish swimming against a river and a bird flying against the wind as a metaphor for the struggle of humanity and acceptance of the nature of life, Bonadies assures us that, “There’s no need to fight because the flow will take you through your life…”
Runaway Train, Hold Me and The Way It Is definitely have that Been to Canaan style percussion. Male harmonizing is used to great effect on songs like Lead With Your Heart and You, a sassy little jazz number somehow reminiscent of Millie Small.
Website: http://www.lindabonadies.com/
Myspace: www.myspace.com/lindabonadies
Those of you who may have missed her first album are in for a double treat. In Linda’s long awaited second album, she builds on her capacity to make you re-examine where you are going in your own life, and all the little things you take for granted. Even if you never before paid any attention to the lyrics in songs, this album may find you waking up in the middle of the night, reciting those lyrics in your head, craving another listen. At least one track on this disc, and maybe most of them, will appear to have been written directly for you or about you personally, or for someone in your family, or someone you know very well. For this second album, Linda has quietly taken a more active role in the production, demonstrating that she is a master magician with the non-vocal pieces and parts that make up her recordings. The result reveals both her remarkable talent and her passion for excellence. I’ve been fortunate to learn firsthand why Linda sings as though she means every word of the lyrics: She really does mean every word! The best news may be this: She has already begun work on a third album!
Linda Bonadies
Karma
Go For It Records/www.lindabonadies.com
Perfecte 70’s pianopop.
Zes jaar geleden probeerde ik u al warm te maken voor Linda Bonadies’ debuut-cd No Regrets, waarop deze toen al volwassen vrouw liet horen in de muziek eindelijk de uitlaatklep te hebben gevonden voor het gevoel van onvrede dat haar beheerste ondanks dat ze kon bogen op een gelukkig huwelijk, drie fijne kinderen en financiële zekerheid. Nieuw en origineel was Bonadies’ stijl allerminst, maar haar Carol King-achtige pianopopliedjes waren dusdanig sterk en meeslepend dat de plaat toch behoorlijk onweerstaanbaar was. Sindsdien liet ze regelmatig nieuwe liedjes op haar website horen, maar een tweede cd bleef uit, totdat dus recentelijk, voorafgegaan door de bijkans briljante titeltrack, deze Karma verscheen, een album waarop ze hoegenaamd geen nieuw terrein aanboort, maar wel weer tien prachtige staaltjes pianopop ten gehore brengt van een kwaliteit waar Carol King heden ten dage een moord voor zou plegen. Begeleid door een voortreffelijk spelende band, wekt Bonadies de klassieke singer-songwriterpop uit de jaren zeventig weer helemaal tot leven met uitmuntende zelfgeschreven liedjes die wel die bepaalde stijl oproepen, maar toch niet tot specifieke nummers te herleiden zijn. Had Linda Bonadies toen al deze plaat kunnen maken, was ze nu wereldberoemd geweest, daarmee onbewust bewijzend hoe relatief alles eigenlijk is en dat je ook op eigen benen een wereldplaat kunt maken, ook al ben je de vier kruisjes ruim gepasseerd.
**** Eric van Domburg Scipio
Karma CD Concert
A work of ‘Karma’ from local songwriter Linda Bonadies
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The characters in Hamden resident Linda Bonadies’ songs might be fictional, but the themes the songwriter is singing about are very true to life. Bonadies believes strongly in her messages, and they’re something that she not only preaches, but also practices.
“It’s funny,” she says, “because people always ask me about if this is me doing what I love. It’s a loaded question. Writing and performing songs isn’t easy for me to do. People always say, ‘You must love it.’ But the songs are written from my heart. It’s hard to live up to them. Actually, it’s an interesting process. Like with my first CD, ‘No Regret.’ It’s about living life without regret. That’s hard to do.”
Bonadies’ journey to becoming a performer is all about having no regrets. She graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in music composition, thought she’d become a composer, but found herself bored with the business. She had no inspiration. For the next 15 or so years, she never once sat down at her piano. Then 9/11 happened, and Bonadies found herself overwhelmed with a yearning to play. She began writing songs, and the results of that work became her debut album, “No Regret.”
After a handful of years and many, many performances and writing sessions, she’s celebrating the release of “Karma” tonight at Hamden’s Thornton Wilder Hall.
“This is kind of a continuation of the last record,” she explains. “The material is about relationships. The CD, the title track, is called ‘Karma.’ It’s got a lot to do with the whole process of music. All my songs are about my voice from the heart. I always say that we all have two parts — our heads and our hearts. In my experience with music, I really have to learn how to turn the volume of my head down and just listen to my heart. In my head, there’s always the voices that say, ‘You’re too old,’ ‘You’re not good enough,’ and ‘This is too risky.’ I need to turn that all down and just listen to my heart.”
For the album, Bonadies began working with Jeff Cannata (Jasper Wrath), the same producer who helmed “No Regret.” But there were a lot of changes before “Karma” could see the light of day.
“It was a long process,” laughs Bonadies. “It had a couple of different homes. It started out with Jeff Cannata, but then I was going to do it on my own. But (guitarist) David Coe kept saying, ‘You’ve got to check out Michael Terry.’ David was right. Michael had all these contacts when I needed players. He just had a great temperament. He didn’t have an ego. He listened to me. I know what I want. And he had some great ideas.”
With the finished CD in hand, Bonadies is really looking forward to getting the material out there at tonight’s celebration. She says her live performances are about a lot more than just playing the music. They’re about sharing with the audience, about getting her messages across.
“I tell a lot of stories when I play live,” she explains. “I want people to understand the songs. It’s terrifying to play. Music in general, it’s about putting myself on the line. It’s about me living my life with no regret. Live you can tell that music means a lot to me. It challenges me a lot. It makes me grow a lot, and it terrifies me a lot. But I love it.”
No Regret REviews
TAXI
you have a great feel for the classic pop song. I’m sure you’ve been compared to Carole King many times but I’ve just gotta say it again. This is quite a compliment, of course! Strong, well crafted songs in the Carole King/Billy Joel pop style. Solid vocals and outstanding musicianship.
CD BABY
I love your “No Regret” CD so much I’m going to feature it on the FRONT PAGE of CD Baby for a few days. We’re REALLY PICKY ABOUT WHAT GOES ON THE FRONT PAGE. We get about 75 new albums a DAY coming in here now, (about 30,000 total), and yours is one of the best I’ve ever heard.
REVIEW: "Perfect adult contemporary soft rock that explodes right from the first track. Tapping into the work of Carole King, Karen Carpenter, Jann Arden, Elton John and more, her music flowers with a clear, distinct and committed sound - her songs proudly sing out with conviction, push ahead with a solid and “I know where I’m going” sentiment. Built solidly on thumping piano lines that take the lead through the harmonic textures, endowed with her vocals and plenty of rhythm and guitar, “No Regret” is an album that catches the ear, no matter which track you start with." (Tamara Turner of Cd Baby)
Love ya!
Derek Sivers
CD Baby
HEAVEN MAGAZINE, The Netherlands Translated by Peter van der Sluijs
“I heard Doin’ time, the marvelous opening track of No Regret from Linda Bonadies...a beautiful uptempo piano riff combined with a strong swinging track marked with Big notes as HIT! Also several other tracks, like Buried alive, Undone at the Seams, Soak Up the Rain and Our Town brought with their passionate, open chords and surprising melancholic turns....the quality of her songs and her passionate recital even then stay at an extraordinary high level and that she absolutely can be called a welcome addition to the modern music, and at least as a songwriter can score high in a commercial way of speaking.”
GREAT INDIE MUSIC
Linda does a great job on this cd. It is simply fantastc!
ELIJAH SAINT
From one musician to another, all I have to say is that you kick ass Linda. I love every single song on your album. However I must admit track 5 "Boys Will Be Boys" is a number one selling hit. Keep up the great work Linda on your songwriting and music. Hope to see you one day on the Grammys.
PRESS.STORIES
"Deep Inside of Me"
Local soft-rock musician finds her way and is working on a second CD
By Erin Elfeldt
Happily married, the mother of three and a graduate degree in music under her belt, Linda Bonadies thought she had it all. Well, almost all. The Hamden woman said something was missing. Then she made a self-discovery that changed her life.
“I can’t tell you where I was or what triggered it. I just remember in a moment it became so clear. It was deep inside of me, it had been there for so long and I didn’t know it,” she said.
In college, she studied to become a composer, but didn’t find it as rewarding as she thought.
“It was very frustrating because I would spend hours working on a piece, and then someone else would take on the role of sharing it with the public and it would sound nothing like how it had sounded in my head,” said Bonadies, 43.
So she pushed aside music, thinking it was either composing or nothing for her, and took a job doing publicity for the Bushnell Performing Arts Center in Hartford. Then the kids came and she left Bushnell to become a fulltime mom.
But Bonadies said she started getting sick a lot, felt lost and became depressed. “I was struggling and slowing losing who I was,” she said.
Then she sat down at the piano again. And things started to change.
In spring of 2001, she said she realized it was in her music where she would find herself. Slowly, Bonadies said the prison walls built by the stressors of life began to fall. The daily grind became more pleasant and her inner spirit was given a chance to breath, she said.
“A lot of my songs are about self-discovery after getting tangled in life for too long, that you have forgotten how to live,” the local musician said.
Just months after Bonadies began her new career of songwriting, 9/11 happened. As a native of Summit, N.J., not far from New York City, she said she felt connected to the tragedy that took about 3,000 lives.
“It seemed like everyone I talked to either knew someone who had lost someone, or lost someone themselves. I was a songwriter now and I knew I needed to write to write a song about it” she said.
Two weeks after the terrorists’ attacks, Bonadies made her first public performance. She sang her 9/11 tribute song, “Our Town,” at her church, Dunbar United Church of Hamden.
Today, she said she dedicates eight hours a day to her work when her kids are at school. Her studio is in a small local church with a piano.
“It is just so peaceful here and the acoustics are great. I feel empowered. It is a great creative atmosphere for me,” she said.
Although Bonadies said she still battles stage fright, it is something she is determined to overcome to be able to connect with her audience.
“My success is measured on my ability to connect, it gives me a personal sense of fulfillment when I can bring people to that place I am in the song,” she said.
Her desire to connect is evident in her first CD titled “No Regret,” which includes 10 of her original songs, resembling a soft-rock genre. Her message is “no regret,” which she hopes will inspire those who listen to her music. She’s currently working on a second CD.
Although most who have bought her first CD live in Connecticut, Bonadies said it’s gone abroad. A British cab driver wrote to her saying, “To be honest, I have not been able to remove it from my car. Listening to your album over the last few months has really helped me out to no end. Thank you.”
For more information about Bonadies, visit www.lindabonadies.com.
Bonadies reflects on musical growth
By: Colleen Redmond
10/13/2006
"It was a spiritual moment, I had no idea what was wrong, and in a moment I realized I was supposed to be writing songs," she said, "It was such a powerful moment."
Bonadies said that while it has been the music of singers like Carole King, Elton John and Billy Joel that have helped to influence her style; it was the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, that compelled her to write the song which is the title cut on her C.D., released last year, titled "Our Town."
"A couple of months before 9-11, I heard the voice in my head that told me I would be a songwriter," said Bonadies. "We also had a family friend that had died on 9-11, but everybody I knew, knew somebody who had died."
After writing "Our Town," Bonadies, who is a resident of Hamden, was invited to perform locally.
"My first music appearance was at my church," she said. "I had very positive feedback." She later was invited to appear at the first-year anniversary vigil of 9-11, held by the town.
Bonadies said that she has changed some of the original words to the song, which she described as "graphic."
"I actually tuned it down, a lot of people had to leave, because they couldn't hear it."
The 43 year-old Bonadies said that after years of feeling a sense of loss in her own life, and many personal struggles, writing music and singing have had a very healing effect in her life, and she feels encouraged to go forward in her music career.
"I hired this guy, Jeff Cannata, he has a studio right here in Hamden. He was a drummer in a big band, "Jasper Wrath;" I had some friends, who told me about him, and we started recording, he produced it and we hired studio musicians. It was a thrill, a great experience."
There are 10 songs on the compact disc, which Bonadies said has "done well," including "Buried Alive, No Regret, and "A friend like you."
Samples of Bonadies music can be found on her Web site at www.lindabonadies.com, or at Cdbaby.com
AWARDS
INDIE ACOUSTIC PROJECT
"Doin’ Time" from the CD No Regret by Linda Bonadies has been selected as one of the “Songs of Note,” which features 10 outstanding songs from 2004. The selection process for the multitudes of CDs we considered was both heartening and difficult. We were privileged to experience hundreds of outstanding CDs, but we were only able to award recognition to the top 42 CDs plus the 10 other great songs from 2004 (yours among them). Each song recognized in the “Great Songs of 2004" is (and you may quote us) “one of the best songs of 2004.”
PACIFIC SONGWRITING COMPETITION
“Doin’ Time” wins prize money as one of the HOT PICKS WINNERS!
PEACEDRIVEN SONGWRITING COMPETITION
"Friend Like You" wins Honorable Mention. "Friend Like You" has a cool upbeat sound and the message of friendship is an uplifting one. The song is memorable and well done.