TOMORROW NIGHT!
August 16 8:00 PM
Canadian Bush Pilot, Vietnam Vet, Parisian Busker,
Bluesman, Poet, Songwriter
Ray Bonneville
The first thing he did was live an amazing life. The kind of Steinbeck novels.
Next, like any great author, he just sat with it. Listened deep within.
Until the songs, like a great novel, finally emerged. When they did, they were born fully grown; mature, graceful, and familiar. That's when Ray Bonneville, now in his forties, began performing.
Bonneville's highway life began at 12, when his parents moved their nine French-speaking children from Quebec to Boston. He learned to play a little piano, then guitar, but language and cultural challenges made school uninviting. After getting expelled,
he joined the Marines, mainly to escape his devoutly religious, oppressively authoritarian father. That was just before Vietnam began showing up on the nightly news. He wound up there for more than a year. Post-discharge, he discovered Howlin' Wolf, and other bluesmen, and taught himself to play harmonica while driving a cab in Boston.
Bonneville spent the '70s in Boulder, Colo., playing in his own band and earning a commercial pilot's license. "I was hooked bad right from the start," he says. "When I was flying, I felt completely at home, like the plane's wings were part of my body."
He headed to Alaska, then Seattle - flying and playing wherever he could.
In Seattle, he got hooked on something else: his old friend, cocaine.
Escaping to Paris, where he knew the language and could avoid temptation, he busked and played for boozy late-night revelers, but for the first time, Bonneville also encountered audiences who sat in silence, truly listening. "It scared me," he admits. "I realized that you'd better have something to say if you're going to play in front of this kind of crowd."
Returning stateside in '83, he moved to New Orleans. Training pilots by day and playing at night, he was stirred by the city's hypnotic undercurrent of mystery and magic. His post-Katrina ode, "I am the Big Easy," was folk radio's No. 1 song of 2008 and earned the International Folk Alliance's 2009 Song of the Year Award.
The romantic notion of becoming a bush pilot took him to northern Quebec's wilderness, where he shuttled sportsmen via seaplane and played Montreal clubs in the off-season. That is, until, flying in fog, he almost hit a power line, and with no fuel left, barely found water to land on. After a nerve-calming whiskey, he decided his bush-pilot days were done. At 41, began to write. His patience showed:
his 1999 album, Gust of Wind, won a Juno (Canadian Grammy) Award.
In 2003, Bonneville moved again to Arkansas, where the fly-fishing was good. He began recording for Red House Records, and adding his talents to albums by Mary Gauthier, Gurf Morlix, Eliza Gilkyson, Ray Wylie Hubbard and others. He's also has shared songwriting credits with Tim O'Brien, Phil Roy and Morlix, etc. Slaid Cleaves placed Bonneville's "Run Jolee Run" on his lauded 2009 album,
Everything You Love Will Be Taken Away.
"I have roughly 12 lines to make a story, so every one has to trigger the listener's imagination," he explains. "I want my songs to be believed, so I work on them until I believe them myself...
I like the criminals and the lost people. That's why I love Flannery O'Connor and those kind of writers. 'Cause I'm lost myself...The whole songwriting thing, to me, is mysterious, and I want to keep it that way."
Come welcome this genuine troubadour to the Treehouse!
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September 25, 8:00pm
GRAMMY NOMINEE
John Fullbright
"A normal person, if they find themselves in a position of turmoil or grief, they'll say, 'I need to get out of this as fast as I can,'" says songwriting phenom John Fullbright. "A writer will say, 'How long can I stay in this until I get something good?' And that's a bullshit way to look at life," he laughs.
That plainspoken approach is part of what's fueled the young Oklahoman's remarkable rise. It was just two years ago that Fullbright released his debut studio album, 'From The Ground Up' to a swarm of critical acclaim. The LA Times called the record "preternaturally self-assured," while
NPR hailed him as one of the 10 Artists You Should Have Known in 2012, saying "it's not every day a new artist...earns comparisons to great songwriters like Townes Van Zandt and Randy Newman, but Fullbright's music makes sense in such lofty company."
The Wall Street Journal crowned him as giving one of the year's 10 best live performances, and 'From The Ground Up' was
nominated for Best Americana Album at the GRAMMY Awards, which placed Fullbright alongside some of the genre's most iconic figures, including Bonnie Raitt. He has appeared on
Prairie Home Companion and Austin City Limits.
If there's a recurring motif it's the act of writing, which is one Fullbright treats with the utmost respect.
Fullbright inhabits his songs' narrators completely, his old-soul voice fleshing out complex characters and subtle narratives with a gifted sense of understatement. "My songwriting is a lot more economical now," he explains. "I like to say as much as I can in 2 minutes 50 seconds, and that's kind of a point of pride for me."
Come see what all the praise is about when John Fullbright brightens up The Treehouse!
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October 12, 8:00 pm
"Potenza is to the blues what Adele is to pop."
- Rolling Stone
Sarah Potenza
If you only catch one show this year, don't take our word for it, take Rolling Stone's:
"Sounds Like: A Janis Joplin-Aretha Franklin hybrid with a mic ... but a Lucinda Williams-Bonnie Raitt hybrid with a pen...
"Why You Should Pay Attention: After Potenza's spellbinding blind audition yielded a four-chair turn on NBC's The Voice, a visibly moved Pharrell Williams told her she was "giving this generation something they've never seen before."
Potenza is a colossal-voiced singer who colors between the lines of Memphis blues, Nashville Americana, New Orleans funk and L.A. punk. Her lyrics are personal and personally therapeutic, as she empowers herself through tunes denouncing industry naysayers and embracing her fuller-figured, boisterous self.
"I've never opened a door with my looks. Because I've always relied on my personality and my talent, I've really flourished and feel strong and confident. I don't know how to get someone to buy me a drink in a bar, but I'll sing you a song!"
With an unusually low voice, and sang with an all-male choir in middle school. She married fellow musician Ian Crossman. After spending seven years with her band Sarah & The Tall Boys, Sarah relocated to Nashville with not much more than her husband and her monster vocals. With that coupled with her honest reflective songwriting she quickly garnered the attention of the city's thriving music scene and she became a staple at the world renowned Bluebird Café as well as guest appearances on Grand Ol' Opry, before landing on Season 8 of NBC's The Voice. From there, at almost 40, the sky is the limit! Come see what all the shouting's about!
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The Treehouse Café has become a live music destination for world class entertainers and local icons alike. We have had the honor of presenting such artists as Billy Joe Shaver, Hayes Carll, Eilen Jewell, Greg Brown, James McMurtry, Tom Russell, Fred Eaglesmith, LeRoy Bell, Amy LeVere, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Mary Gauthier, Allen Stone, The Moondoggies, The Cave Singers and more!
Music and Booking: 206 842-2369 booking@treehousebainbridge.com
The Treehouse Café is an exciting and welcoming pub and pizzeria located in the charming and historic Lynwood Center neighborhood on the south end of Bainbridge Island. The Treehouse Café features specialty pizza voted "Bainbridge's Best", as well as soup, salad, sandwiches and pasta for dine in or take out. The Treehouse Café offers a dozen house specialty pizzas, or the ability to build your own thin crust pizza with a variety of fresh toppings. We feature import and craft beers on draft and a unique and affordable wine selection. We are pleased to offer espresso from Lighthouse Roasters, one of Seattle's original boutique coffee roasters, and fresh pastry from Macrina and Pane d' Amore bakeries. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Cafe: 206 842-2814
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