Classically trained 90’s indie rock musician, Tracy Bonham, has just released her new single, “Jumping Bean,” with a music video. The song is taken from her upcoming album, Sky Too Wide, due for release on June 6, 2025 via the record label, A Woody Hollow, It is a reimagining of a guitar track that she released in 2000 from her album, Down Here (Island Records). Check it out below.
“Jumping Bean” is about the inner strength and belief in oneself needed so that we can stand up to anyone who tries to limit, diminish or categorize us,” says Bonham about her new single. “This is written from a woman’s perspective but can be applied to anyone who feels marginalized.”
This struggle against patriarchal thinking is nothing new, of course, but for Tracy, she felt it firsthand in the music business. “This was a growing awareness I had, as my world expanded from being a young woman treated as a subordinate and dealing with sexist bosses, to sitting in boardrooms and business dinners with ‘powerful’ men in the music business who thought nothing of telling me what to wear, how to pose, and how to step out of the way,” she describes. While it may have the same lyrics, it is now coming from a place of liberation rather than a feeling of helplessness… Releasing the spunky energy from the original, the 2025 version of the song trades in the vigorous abandon for a much more confident and deliberate control, displaying a healthy dose of female agency and power.
The accompanying video was filmed with the Eugene Ballet, featuring choreography from the acclaimed choreographer Suzaane Haag. “This live performance exemplifies what it is to dissent as a female artist working in a traditionally misogynist art form; classical ballet,” Tracy says. “For a big part of it, Suzaane used literal choreography from some of the oldest, most classic ballets (La Bayadère, Paquita, Swan Lake, and Giselle). That said, Suzaane’s irony doesn’t replace how much she reveres the art form as a part of who she is and her sense of pride when she chooses to wear the toe shoes, the tutus, and to stand on one leg, etc. It is not a sign of weakness, even with the traditional underpinnings of a male dominated business.” Suzanne mentions this in the Jumping Bean Mini Doc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBM6GarNmO0
Formerly an indie rock darling, Tracy is now using her life experience and classical violin and piano training to expand her musical palette. She now plays with two experienced jazz musicians, to complement her own classical training: “I had been playing “Jumping Bean” solo (guitar and vocals) with a PJ Harvey-esque bluesy vibe for many years. When my rhythm section joined me (Rene Hart on bass and Alvester Garnett on drums), they added a rhythmic element that transformed the choruses into a rock-blues anthem that is incredibly unique and powerful.”
Tracy Bonham is a classically trained violinist and pianist turned alternative singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 1996 with her twice GRAMMY™ nominated album, The Burdens of Being Upright (Island Records). This debut album cast Bonham into the global spotlight with MTV fame and major radio airplay with her #1 alternative chart-topping song “Mother Mother,” an anthem for disgruntled teenagers of all ages. While so many of her songs have been placed in film and tv throughout the decades, you might have most recently heard “Mother Mother” in Showtime’s Yellow Jackets (Season 1 Episode 2).
Over the past 27 years, Bonham’s albums and live performances have shown what it is to be an ever-evolving artist. While Bonham sings, she moves from guitar to violin, from violin to piano, and back again. When playing live, her songs from the 90s blend and blur with stylistic changes that she has created over time making her entire repertoire make sense as an entire body of work. She plays the old and new material and even though the songs span thirty years they all continue to be equally relevant.
Bonham is joined by upright bassist Rene Hart (David Amram, James Hunter) and drummer Alvester Garnett (Regina Carter, Abbey Lincoln) in her new material, as she connects to something deeper than ever– her true self. Most of the new songs are performed on the piano, giving her the chance to lean back to what made her fall in love with music in the first place.
Borrowing harmonic structures and beautiful melodies from her favorite classical romantic composers, Bonham stretches herself artistically to combine this rediscovered passion with her unique and quirky songwriting style to create musical alchemy. This purifying process most certainly acts as a vehicle for inner transformation for Bonham. “It’s like going back to the spark I had as a very young musician, discovering the beauty of Ravel and DeBussy and reclaiming that spark and everything that has happened after that.” Bonham speaks of her current line-up, “Playing with incredible jazz musicians like Rene and Alvester has opened my mind and is now giving me the support I have always needed to spread my wings and fly. I am really enjoying exploring the intersections and overlaps of where classical and jazz meet without excluding my alternative rock sensibilities. These dudes can rock too. The three of us playing together is definitely my happy place.”
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