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LOVE IN THE RUINS (Bondage) • Bonnie Hayes
One of the queens of San Francisco pop, back and in your face. All right!
When I was living in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s, about my favorite band there at the time was Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo. She came from a very talented family, her brother Kevin sang and played drums in the Combo and went on to do many years with Robert Cray, her brother Chris played guitar, sang and wrote for Huey Lewis and the News. That kind of thing. My memory's a little fuzzy for very good reasons, but sometime later, she penned a couple of monster hits that finally made Bonnie Raitt a huge star. And she moved to L.A.
So, that's background. Nowadays, Bonnie's reinvented herself as a guitarist (she's a fabulous keyboard player), and is more of a rocker than ever. (Guitars will do that to you.) In her own words:
I'm still
wild, still wild
wilder still, now that
I don’t have a future to kill
Love in the Ruins is a great rock and roll record with the quality songwriting that Bonnie's career has always been about. Chick has never been short on attitude and there's plenty of that, and the high craft lyrics speak honestly and explicitly about her colorful life. The songs I like best are to me the most vulnerable ones, "Greener Grass" and "Turn Down Love." That's the vein I want to tap when an artist is actually interesting (many are not), that's the road I want to go down.
I'm turned on to hear more from Bonnie Hayes. She's capable of so many things, knows how to make the tunes sound great, she understands all the elements. She's toured all over the world with her own groups and the likes of Billy Idol, the woman's a world class rocker. Great to see her back in the studio with Steve Savage producing on Bondage Records, that's good chemistry.
I have always been, and remain, a huge fan of this artist. Check her out on the Listen page, and buy it, here. • FG
return to covers listen to clips
bonniehayes.com bondagerecords.com
