Karla Bonoff - Karla Bonoff

Over the last year I've been on a Linda Ronstadt kick. I managed to find several of her albums in the dollar bin that were in fantastic shape, and from there it led to a couple albums by Andrew Gold, and today the bins coughed up Karla Bonoff's 1977 debut. Karla contributed to Linda's release Hasten Down the Wind the year before, as a songwriter and providing backing vocals to two of the three tracks she'd written for the album. 

The album itself was in decent shape, the jacket was okay, but sadly there was no insert so who knows what may or may not have been on the liner, but the back cover had a lot of information which I always appreciate. This was an album I was looking forward to hearing as I'd never heard the album or anything by Karla that I can remember, and I wasn't sure what to expect (I had some idea but you never know. There are a lot of great writers that need good singers. Jennifer Warnes comes to mind, who was great with Leonard Cohen songs, anyway I'm getting way off topic, and getting lost in the parenthesis) - boy it didn't disappoint. You certainly echoes of Linda in her vocals, and it's hard to separate one from the other to be honest, particularly when a year later Karla revisits her own songs. Helping and not helping with this comparison were the stable of musicians she used to record her album. Andrew Gold is here, as is Kenny Edwards who in addition to playing also produced, and both had history with Linda. Heck the list of credits is mind boggling - it seems every L.A. ace was somehow involved from Leland Sklar on bass, to J.D. Souther and Glen Frey who provide backing vocals on "If He's Ever Near" which is an amazingly beautiful song. Heck Linda returns the favour by providing backing vocals on two tracks, "Home" and "Rose in the Garden" which are really great songs. The album sounds amazing too, Greg Ladanyi engineered so many wonderful records.

Rock and roll is a funny thing, there can be literally dozens of sound a like bands fronted by men, but Karla seemed to be relegated to being that singer who sounded like Linda Ronstadt and as rock and roll already had a Linda did it need a Karla too? Especially since just a year earlier three of the ten songs on her debut were released by Linda. Sure Karla killed it, why wouldn't she they were her songs. I don't think it helped with the inevitable comparisons, but I suspect they'd have been there regardless just given the circle they were in. Did I mention she killed it? As to redoing her songs, it's like they were written for her, and that's likely why she put them on the album. Which isn't to take away from the other 70% of the album which doesn't have a weak track in the lot.

With the passage of time and being able to listen to this with fresh ears and no baggage I love it. I am a sucker for this era of LA rock and roll. It's funny (not ha ha) how fresh this still sounds, and highlight how little things have changed in some respects. Maybe Karla didn't step out from the shadows of her contemporaries - Maybe she didn't need to as she cast enough light to be seen, and she's still heard.