Ray Bonneville

 ( 1948 Births ) 

Bonneville's family moved back to Canada when Bonneville was in his late teens and Bonneville, who had been expelled from school, signed up for the United States Marine Corps just in time for the Vietnam War.

Returning from the war, Bonneville worked in Boston as a taxicab to pay the bills, teaching himself to play harmonica between fares. Getting more involved in the music scene, Bonneville began freelancing with R&B and blues bands in the Boston area. Then, in the 1970s, Bonneville began traveling the country exploring and absorbing musical styles, playing at festivals and small clubs across the United States, and opening for the likes of B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Dr. John.

In the 1970s Bonneville, while in Colorado, learned how to fly a plane and supplemented his income by working as a flight instructor in New Orleans and Boston as well as doing aerial-advertising banner-pulling over Cape Cod. In 1988 Bonneville returned to Quebec to work as a Bush flying. From May through October he would transport hunters, fishermen, and surveyors into and out of remote areas in a De Havilland float plane.

Bonneville's music was heavily influenced by his time spent in New Orleans during the 1980s, and later. It is often said that the sound of New Orleans is that of rhythm, the rhythms of a brassy jazz band, of the mighty Mississippi River, of the , and the rhythm of slowness.Gordon, Keith A. Reverend (Retrieved December 20, 2012)[4] Ray Bonneville – Goin' by Feel (2008) It is this rhythm, this slowness, that captured Bonneville. Bonneville soaked up the prevalent take-your-time attitude that ran through the music being played in New Orleans. "There's something about the heat and humidity that makes people slow down," he says. "New Orleans is where I learned to take my time, to allow space between the notes so the songs could truly groove." It is that groove that is the core of Bonneville's sound. A one-man band, he backs his weathered voice with a highly percussive guitar style, dramatic harmonica lines, and a foot that keeps a steady beat (Bonneville often stomps on a piece of plywood to amplify the beat of his songs).Blum, Jim (May 28, 2008) [5] "Ray Bonneville: True-to-Life Troubadour" NPR Music – Favorite Sessions Bonneville's I Am the Big Easy, the 2009 Folk Alliance International Song of the Year features the heart and resilience of New Orleans, post-Katrina.

Musician Brad Hayes is credited, by Bonneville, for much of his early musical development. Hayes and Bonneville had a friendship and musical partnership that lasted for decades, including playing in bands in Colorado for six or seven years, and Hayes performing on Bonneville's CD's. Other musical influences of Bonneville's include Tony Joe White, Mississippi John Hurt and J.J. Cale (to whom he's often compared). "Bonneville writes songs of true-to-life characters who stumble their way through a rough-and-tumble world of violence, hope, and despair" (Jim Blum, NPR).