when I stepped into the professional part of me. Which always cracks me up, because I think of the Wizard of Oz, when he goes,“ Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” I’ m just a regular person with vulnerabilities and foibles and mistakes and addictions and all that, but when I step into the professional realm or as an activist, I think I can hold on to the power line a lot more easily.
Anastasia: What do you do to protect yourself as far as your voice and your physical and mental well-being?
Bonnie: What an incredible gift the internet is to be able to turn younger people onto the roots of the blues. Maybe they find some local metal band that they like, and then they read in an article or on their website that they loved Led Zeppelin. Then you look at who Led Zeppelin loved. Within a half hour, you can go back and discover everybody ' s albums. That’ s an incredible gift. So, aside from that gift, the internet, email, and texting have saved my voice, because I used to spend a lot of time phoning friends or making arrangements for a guest list or after-show get-togethers the next day or a day off. I don ' t use my voice as much. That ' s one way I take care of my voice. The other way is I warm up for a half hour. And I didn ' t used to do that. I used to just sing an easy song first in the set. I ' ve been sober 38 years. I eat organic, and
I try to get outside and get some fresh air and get my heart rate up. I do a pretty serious yoga and weight practice three or four times a week. That all helps me to be more limber and flexible and strong at 75 than had I been on the path I was on in my 20s and 30s.
Anastasia: I ' m fortunate to talk with you, as well as with Joan Baez, Rosanne Cash, and Ani DiFranco recently. There’ s something about these feminist icons, like you, who are committed not only to their music, but to social activism. Joan told me that there ' s no separating the two.
Bonnie: I agree, and she was one of my main inspirations. Pete Seeger and Joan, and groups like The Weavers and Woody Guthrie, practiced the whole tradition of using your voice to raise attention and sometimes funds. We all know that some grassroots group trying to stop a toxic incinerator near a Black community in the middle of Ohio isn ' t going to get any press attention. But some artist comes in and speaks at the rally or sings at the rally, then the news stations cover it. The town criers that artists have been for years, we ' re just reflecting the conscience of the culture. I think it ' s important to be responsible and informed if you ' re going to speak out. I also don ' t preach from the stage. When people are there to see my concerts, I don ' t subject them to my political views. I might make a barbed comment here or there, if I can ' t help it. We always have grassroots groups tabling, local groups that are working on issues that we think are important, primarily food insecurity, safe and clean energy, and all of that. I don ' t proselytize, but certainly I like to speak out and raise my voice and use the funds from the tour to contribute to groups that don ' t have access to corporate money like the big guys do.
Anastasia: Where are you the happiest, on stage or recording?
Bonnie: Definitely on stage. It ' s a total transformative exaltation. There’ s nothing like what happens between the audience and us on stage. It ' s why you put up with the other 22 hours. We don ' t have a real heavy schedule. We work five months out of the year, four days a week. It ' s really a wonderful thing to be on the road. I make records so I have new songs to play, not the other way around.
Anastasia: When did you pick up the guitar?
Bonnie: I went to summer camp while my dad was doing summer stock. He primarily toured in the summertime, eight shows a week, and switched over to theater in the round. There were a lot of tents. Broadway stars would take their shows all around the country. And so my brothers and I went to a Quaker camp up in the Adirondacks, which was run by dear friends of my folks. And there was all kinds of international counselors and kids from all kinds of backgrounds from the East Coast and around the world. Folk music was taking off in the late’ 50s at colleges. The folk music revival that started with the Newport festivals caught fire. My counselors were all singing folk music around the campfire, songs by Joan Baez and Odetta and Pete Seeger. And I learned how to play the guitar. I tried it out, and I asked my folks if I could get one for Christmas. When I was just a month shy of nine years old, at Christmastime, I got my first guitar. I played folk music like my counselors did. I asked for a Joan Baez record, and then I played Odetta records. Then I played Bob Dylan songs. I heard country blues on the Newport’ 63 album. That’ s the first time I heard slide guitar in a blues context. My grandfather played Hawaiian lap steel guitar when he played hymns sometimes, and that was really fun to hear. Once I found out that you could just move this bar back and forth, you could easily play all kinds of songs without learning the chords. That ease has never stopped being fun for me. So, about 15 or 16, I started playing slide guitar.
Anastasia: I was just listening again to your latest album, Just Like That, and I’ ve read the story about how the title song came about. Do people reach out to you about the songs that you have sung?
Bonnie: Yeah, especially after“ Just Like That” won the Song of the Year, which was a huge surprise to everyone on Earth, including me. Within a few days, at the
34 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Holiday May / June 2023 2025