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Like Alanis Morissette and Liz Phair, Tracy Bonham made her name during the alternative boom of the mid-‘90s. Unlike those two songwriters, she did so by merging post-grunge with elements of classical music, drawing upon her violin skills in the process. The combination helped push her 1996 debut, The Burdens of Being Upright, to gold sales, and Bonham closed out the year with two Grammy nominations. Although her later albums didn’t fare quite so well, Bonham continued expanding her sound into a hybrid of folk, rock, and ornate pop, replacing the record sales of years past with critical approval. Bonham began playing the violin at age nine, while growing up alongside her eight siblings in Eugene, OR. Although she received a scholarship to study classical violin at the University of Southern California, she dropped out after several semesters and moved east to attend the Berklee College of Music, where she took classes in jazz and vocal music. Her tastes shifted to rock music during t...