Barrelhouse Bonni: Press

Barrelhouse Bonni was voted Best Solo Performer of 2006 by readers of Graffiti, West Virginia's statewide entertainment weekly.

Bonni walks the walk, talks the talk and makes the acoustic piano wail, in the gritty, gutsy Chicago style that resonates so well to her local fans.

The original "Green Line Blues" is a gorgeous, late-1950s inspired I-IV vamp that finds Larry Taylor trading vocals with pianist and co-writer Bonni McKeown... "They Were in This House is Chicago's real House of Blues."

Bonni has been an inspiration to me since she sent me my first Martin Luther King Day card, since she first emailed "pray for peace, work for justice, boogie for survival", since she left West Virginia to follow her muse and moved to Chicago. She lives honestly. And now, on "Barbershop Blues," she plays and sings her heart, her pure heart, honestly. Her songwriting here inspires another dimension and embodies her aforementioned creed. I thank Bonni for the inspiration that she has unknowingly given me. This woman has Big Ovaries!

Pianist Barrelhouse Bonni was invited to sit in on a couple of Sam Lay's performances during a round Saturday evening (Aug. 10 2002 at the Mountain Stage NewSong Festival in Charles Town W.Va.). She brought the songs to life with her boogie-woogie playing, and demonstrated true professionalism with her sensitivity to the dynamics of Lay's performance. Unrehearsed no less."

...an amalgam of coffee house folk, burlesque & old tent shows...there is at times a female version of Tom Waits trying to get out of Bonni... "98th Floor", a 9/11 inspired song captures the attention and then widens into the plight of others around the globe; this is frontier modern folk music...the musicianship is quite high...particularly Jay Summerour's harp playing...(Mike Baytop) plays some tasty fills & Howlin 'Wolf growlin'...A bonus is the real deal singing & guitar of NJ Warren on his own composition "Dream On."... On "We'll Still Have Memphis," handsome sax breaks by Milika and low-key guitar from Rick Burnett punctuate Bonni's melodic keys.