Magazine
Fall/Winter 2001

Those Good Time,
Hard Drivin’,
Philosophical Blues
A double-major in biology and philosophy bound for medical school, Gordon Bonham departed the well-beaten path to become one of the Midwest’s most entertaining and respected blues guitarists.

by Howard Hewitt

If life is a journey defined by learning, Gordon Bonham ’80, is a constant traveler.

The noted blues guitarist is better known for his bottleneck steel guitar playing and hot licks with his Gordon Bonham Blues Band than he is for his philosophical outlook on life.

And that’s just fine with him.

Bonham arrived at Wabash in 1976 as a promising Hammond High School distance runner. But an interest in music had started to build as he played the trumpet in his high school jazz band. His parents had bought him an old beat-up six-string guitar when he was 15 in exchange for painting their home.

He moved up to his first electric guitar while at Wabash. But he also concentrated on his biology major with an eye toward medical school. By his sophomore year he became attracted to the intellectual challenges in philosophy. He graduated magna cum laude with a double major.

After graduation, Bonham chose to depart from the path into medicine many predicted. He followed his growing love for music.

“I like to think one of the most important things I learned at Wabash is that you can do whatever you want,” the 44-year-old said. “I kind of chose a crazy thing to do. But just like anything else, you put your head down and work on it and you can do it.”

Bonham has approached his music career with the same determination he did academics and athletics. He has played with many greats and traveled the nation and Europe choosing music over academia or medicine.

“A philosophy degree is a perfect thing for a blues player,” he laughed. “Don’t ask me why. It’s a thinking person’s degree. Those degrees teach you to read, write, and think. It was refreshing. There wasn’t a job it was directing me toward when I graduated, it was knowledge for the sake of knowledge.”

While pursuing that knowledge, Bonham sowed the seeds of his music career with a trio playing small shows around campus and Crawfordsville. While reflecting on his College days at his Story, Indiana, home one August afternoon, he recalled Professor Bill Placher ‘70 showing up for one of his group’s performances.

“There are good teachers and great teachers,” Bonham recalled. “He is just one of those persons who inspire. He made the whole process fun.”

The admiration is returned today. Placher recalls Bonham earning distinction during his senior comprehensive exams.

“Gordon had been a good student, but not right at the top of the class, so his distinction signaled that he had really been thinking about what he was learning and putting the pieces of his education together for himself,” Placher said. “I had sensed that about him, so it surprised him more than it did me.”

“I knew about his guitar playing when he was a student, but I guess I thought of him more as a distance runner than a guitarist. I terrifically admire the way he has remained true to what he really wanted to do ... make a living in a very tough field.”

It wasn’t easy.

After graduation Bonham decided to pursue his dream. He moved home and substitute taught in local schools. He also worked landscaping. But while living in Hammond he frequented Chicago blues clubs and improved his skills by listening to and playing with many of the city’s great musicians.

He also made frequent trips to Bloomington, where the music crowd his music was warmly received. He started sharing the stage with household names like REM, the Georgia Satellites, REO Speedwagon, and John Prine. Most were in town recording at John Mellencamp’s studios. Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff started playing with Bonham in the Ragin’ Texans, a group of legendary stature in the Bloomington area.

But Bonham wanted to travel and see the world. He hooked up with Texas harmonica master Gary Primmich and the Mannish Boys, toured the country and Europe. He played with a couple of other groups before fronting the Cooler Kings—a band that also toured Europe and had significant critical acclaim in the early 90s. Then, the Gordon Bonham Blues Band came together in 1994.

The four-piece band includes Indianapolis veteran drummer Jeff Chapin and Smokin’ Dave Wyatt on bass. Tom Harold adds harmonica and occasional vocals.

Bonham and his band members like the simple old songs. His band or acoustic show is certain to include a dose of legendary blues man Robert Johnson’s songs, old standards and Delta blues.

“I call it the blues Top 40,” he explained, sipping lemonade and sitting near his small horse barn in Brown County. “We play a lot of Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, I also throw in some of the Texas stuff, The Fabulous Thunderbirds. I kinda copy some of the sounds they have, what I think of as Texas blues—real guitar-driven with harmonica.”

PERHAPS THE ONLY THING MORE AMAZING than Bonham’s mastery of the electric, acoustic, and resonator guitar and energetic band performance is that he’s self-taught. “I didn’t take lessons, but I did hang out with people who were better than me. I kind of learned by watching and being around good players.”

He cites Johnson, Bukka White and Jimmy Walker among his many musical influences. He listens to a lot of 70s classic blues rock and describes himself as a “folkie.” He listens to Bob Dylan’s older material every day.

He has plenty of time to catch tunes on his car stereo. He commutes almost daily from his secluded Story home to Indianapolis, an hour-and-a-half drive.
He shares a small farmhouse with his wife, Francie, and three-year-old daughter, Emma Clare. Francie has worked as a graphic artist while Emma Clare’s work is restricted to chalk on a front walk. Story, Brown County State Park, and the Hoosier National Forest surround the yellow frame house. The Bonhams share their solitude with four horses, a cow, several cats, and one old dog.

The time at Story is precious to the self-proclaimed family man. He often doesn’t arrive home until very late at night, early morning for most.
“I try to be a day person, and by definition I’m a night person,” he explained. “I typically perform 9 p.m.—1 a.m. and get home at three or four in the morning. Then I get up at nine and try to do stuff with my family.

“I’m lucky because I get to be home all day with my family. It’s like I’m on vacation all the time. I just don’t get to sleep. I tend to function okay, maybe after all those years of running, my metabolism is such that I have stamina for it— I rarely get more than four or five hours of sleep.”

The life of a working musician requires additional hours on the road, talking with agents, publicity and "keeping my calendar full.”
He says the weekend bar dates are his bread and butter, but corporate shows and special performances usually pay better.

“It’s never decent enough, but it gets better every year,” he said of his standard of living. “I’ve reached certain plateaus I’m very proud of. We enjoy our modest life out here ... so it’s not hard to make ends meet.”

BONHAM’S REWARDS HAVE GROWN WITH HIS MOVE INTO ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE. While his band plays mostly on weekends, blues fans are likely to find Bonham on a weeknight in a Bloomington or Indianapolis bar, a Borders Bookstore or any number of corporate performances.

He has a 1998 release titled “Get Back Home” of all acoustic material. He wrote half of the CD’s 16 tracks. His band’s CD, “Low Down and Blue,” was released in 1999.

He started the solo performances in the late 1980s when he returned from his days with Primmich.

“I’d always been in bands, I’d never been on stage by myself. I remember my mom saying, ‘Play me a song Mr. Guitar player’ ... they [his parents] really didn’t know what I did.”

But he’s now hooked on the solo efforts.

“When you’re holding an acoustic instrument, there’s a lot more going on in the subtleties, and it’s a lot scarier too. Volume is a big thing to lean on [with electric]; it’s kinda easy to club people over the head with an electric instrument. It’s easy to show off, easy to get their attention, easy to make them dance, easy to manipulate them to do whatever you want ... and that’s thrilling too ... but when I play solo, I still break a little sweat.”

The misconceptions people have of a working musician’s life are many, and the weekly routine can have Bonham working up a lather. He performs five or six nights a week and nearly 300 nights a year.

“It’s a lot harder than people might think. They see me having so much fun up there and gosh, I’m putting in, like, 12-hour days almost every day. I may only be onstage for four hours, but are hours of drive time, setting up and tearing down. People don’t believe I carry my own stuff. They don’t believe I mow my own yard.”

His enthusiasm shows on stage. Bonham, hair tied back in a ponytail, bounces through his set. He’s happy. He’s having fun. And don’t think playing the blues gives a musician the down-and-outs.

“Blues is party, fun music—music to get over the blues,” he says with a touch of defiance. “People usually want to know what kind of blues I play: for me it’s good times. I want to let people know blues is not sad music. I think most people kinda know that now. Bluegrass is pretty sad, though—songs about hollerin’, and so and so dyin’ ... “

But he’s also finding enjoyment in sharing his talent. Bonham started teaching while at Wabash. But having never taken a lesson, he didn’t know where to start. "I’d just sit there and say this is how I taught myself and I’ll show you what I did."

He still teaches but prefers to think of it as tutoring or mentoring. "I usually take people who are already professional or established players. They might want to learn how to play some slide guitar or delta blues stuff. I’ll show them things, tricks and things that I do."

He would like to do more clinics and perhaps record a video of his lessons. The idea of an adult learning camp also appeals to him.

Bonham has appeared with the growing Indianapolis Jazz Fest. In 2000, he split the bill with Robert Cray, John Hiatt and Al Green. Just this year he did 12 junior high school clinics teaching students about the blues. “It was really fun and there are lots of opportunities to do education things,” he said. “I would like to do more stuff like that.”

While teaching is a growing passion, Bonham also aches to expand his own skills. “When someone asks me what’s on my mind ... I want to learn more,” he said with genuine enthusiasm. “I feel like there’s not enough time to learn the stuff I want to know. I’ve kind of been branching off a little bit into folk music. And, I’ve been learning banjo and mandolin. I’d like to know how to play everything.

“These styles would be incorporated into my brand of blues. It’s what I love to listen to in the car and when I’m at home. And, gosh, I want to play it too.”
As the interview ends, he explains that a friend is on the way over to visit. Bonham plans to cook dinner, talk a while. Then the two of them are learning to play the ukulele.

For Bonham, the journey never ends.
pulled quotes
“A philosophy degree is a perfect thing for a blues player. It’s a thinking person’s degree… knowledge for the sake of knowledge.”
“I terrifically admire the way he has remained true to what he really wanted to do ... make a living in a very tough field.”
“When you’re holding an acoustic instrument, there’s a lot more going on in the subtleties, and it’s a lot scarier too. It’s kinda easy to club people over the head with an electric instrument. It’s easy to show off, easy to get their attention, easy to make them dance, easy to manipulate them to do whatever you want ... and that’s thrilling too ... but when I play solo acoustic, I still break a little sweat.”

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