Bonnie Bishop

Bonnie Bishop

Bonnie Bishop is an American singer-songwriter associated with contemporary country and country music. She is from Cincinnati, Ohio, and is also identified with Texas, where she grows up in Houston and builds her early career on the state club circuit. Her releases appear on the Plan BB label.

Early life and training

Bishop is introduced to soul music at an early age by her parents in Houston. She performs at family events as a child and develops an early comfort with stage performance through costumes and songs by Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin. She studies musical theatre and trains formally in opera until college. She later studies sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she begins writing her own songs.

Career

After graduating, Bishop forms a band and performs widely across Texas, playing clubs, dance halls, and rock venues. She stands out in the male-dominated regional scene and shares bills with artists including Jack Ingram and Radney Foster. She also appears at major Texas venues such as Billy Bob’s Texas, Antones, and the Mucky Duck.

Her first full-length album, Long Way Home, appears in 2004 and produces two singles that remain on the Texas Music Chart Top 30 for more than six months. In 2006 she releases Soft to the Touch on Smith Music Group. Walt Wilkins produces the album, which includes guest guitar work from David Grissom, and its title track becomes a regional hit. Bishop co-writes that song with Ray Wylie Hubbard. The record helps extend her audience beyond Texas into the Southeast and Midwest.

Later in 2006 she records and releases Bonnie Bishop and Friends Live at Magnolia Avenue, a double-disc live album from an acoustic performance in Fort Worth. The release is noted for her version of Cindy Walker’s “You Don’t Know Me”. Around this period she gains the attention of Robert Earl Keen and begins touring with him and his band as an acoustic opener in 2007, reaching larger audiences in theatres and rock rooms outside Texas, including on the East Coast.

Songwriting and later work

While touring, Bishop teaches herself guitar and piano over the course of a year and travels regularly to Nashville to write with other songwriters. She relocates to East Nashville in late 2007 with her partner and pets, signs a writing deal with Montage Music Group, and begins working full time as a songwriter.

She spends much of 2008 writing and recording Virginia with Will Kimbrough. The album is described as mixing rock and blues influences with her raspy voice and is noted for its strong emphasis on original material. It remains unreleased in the material provided, but it attracts industry attention for both her singing and songwriting.

Bishop also works with Mike Reid, Walt Aldridge, and Big Al Anderson, and she appears at the Key West Songwriter’s Festival. Throughout her career, she presents herself as a writer and performer focused on a distinctive style rather than mainstream conformity.