If you can’t name a Karla Bonoff song off the top of your head, you’ll probably recognize one if you come to her show.
Linda Ronstadt has sung them. So has Bonnie Raitt and Wynonna Judd. But at 8 p.m. Friday, Bonoff will sing them herself at the Center for the Arts of Homer
Writing melodies on piano and guitar has always come easy to her, she said, but lyrics take way more effort.
“Most of the time it’s weeks, months, or even years on some of those, coming up with lyrics,” she said. “I’m not one of those people that wakes up and writes a bunch of words on a piece of paper. I wish I was. Music is much more natural to me.”
On Ronstadt’s 1976 album “Hasten Down the Wind,” Bonoff wrote the tracks “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me,” “If He’s Ever Near” and “Lose Again,” her website says.
Bonoff wrote the song “Goodbye My Friend,” about the death of her cat. Ronstadt sang that, too.
“People think it’s about losing a human, but it’s actually about losing a cat,” Bonoff said.
In 1977, Bonoff was signed as a solo artist to Columbia Records. She recorded Ronstadt’s three tracks, her single “I Can’t Hold On” and the song “Home,” which later ended up on Raitt’s album “Sweet Forgiveness.”
In a 1978 review of her self-titled debut album, Time Magazine complimented her lyric – “The people I’ve seen, they come in between, the cities of tiring life” – calling her writing both poignant and strong-willed.
“Put lyrics like that together with a typically luxuriant Bonoff melody and there are clear indications of a formidable talent,” reviewer Jay Cocks wrote. “Watch her perform in her still uncertain way, singing sweet and simple, and sometimes flashing her fast, foxy smile, and there are strong intimations of stardom.”
Bonoff also sang the “Footloose” song “Somebody’s Eyes,” and made the song “Standing Right Next to Me” for the film “8 Seconds.” She considers her film songs some of her best work.
“I’ve found that some of the best songs I’ve written were for a movie, where I had no real emotional connection,” she said. “The process is the process, and when you write music, it comes out of your subconscious and your soul anyway. It isn’t different. If you’re writing well, you’re just writing from your heart.”
Her more recent songs are more unplugged compared to her earlier work, which had a full band supporting her. She still loves writing classic pop songs about love and heartbreak.
“I write songs people can relate to, because they’re about basic emotions that people all feel,” she said. “When people can’t write songs or poetry, they can’t express that, so they find listening to music and having someone else express that helps them with their emotions,” Bonoff said.
When she was in her 20s, her songs were often about specific heartbreaks or boyfriends, she said. Now in her 70s, her focus has shifted, and she tends to focus on the world as a whole, she said.
“I’ve had people tell me ‘your music got me through college,’ or ‘your music got me through my divorce,’” she said. “I think music can be cathartic for other people, and I hope if I’ve done anything in my career, I’ve offered some healing and help for people who are going through emotional things.”
