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An
interview for the Hartland music festival TALKIN’ AFTER MIDNIGHT Daniel J. Kruse
My only regret concerning Patsy is that she died so young and that I never had a chance to see her perform live. The one good thing about dying is that if you leave behind a good body of work (as opposed to a great one) people will still remember you. Patsy left a great body of work. Although that is debated in the following interview, "actually, Patsy’s song selection was pretty lousy for quite a while" the fact of the matter is that the woman left an indelible mark on country music. No one knows this better than Kaija and Brian Bonde. For quite some time now, they’ve ate, slept and drank Patsy Cline, with Brian as a producer of the play "Always…Patsy Cline" and Kaija who plays Patsy in both the play and on musical stages doing Patsy Cline tributes. Throughout the course of this interview, it was evident that both of them are passionate and articulate when it comes to Patsy Cline. I’ve never learned so much about someone in such a short amount of time. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s Kaija and Brian Bonde. DJK: Wouldn’t you agree that Patsy Cline was a white soul singer with a whole lot of country influence? K&B: You are trying to do what others have tried to do for 50 years: Put Patsy in a nice clean little box. She won’t fit. Patsy thought of herself as a "little ol’ country gal", as she said. She loved what we now call traditional country, especially the country raveups, the fast tunes she did so often and so well in her live performances, complete with yodeling and growling. But she was also very influenced by jazz balladeers like Kay Starr. Her producer Owen Bradley knew she could sing the ballads and they would sell. So, now, when we think of Patsy we think of the Nashville country-politan sound, because that is what Owen gave us. Patsy sang country and it came from her soul, not the other way around. DJK: I’m assuming that you’re a big Patsy Cline fan. Isn’t this more about the music that it is about theatre? K&B: Of course, if it is about Patsy, it’s about the music. The salute we will do at the festival is only the musical part of a much larger theatrical production called Always…Patsy Cline. The play tells the true story of a woman who met Patsy at a concert one night in Houston. It’s the kind of relationship all of us would love to have with a celebrity we admire. DJK: My contention has always been that Patsy’s voice kicked some major behind and that the song selection was superb. Those great writers from that era combined with her vocal abilities are what completed the soul quotient. It’s what made Patsy Cline the beautiful creation that she was. Of course, she’d also lived a lot of that too. Seriously, not too many people can sing "I should hate you the whole night through. Instead of having sweet dreams of you" and pull it off the way she did. B&K: Actually, Patsy’s song selection was pretty
lousy for quite a while, and her voice really developed over time. She was only
in her teens when she started and she died at thirty. In her first ten years,
she didn’t understand how the business of music could destroy her art. No one can sing Sweet Dreams, like Patsy…but there are thousands of people who have fallen in love with Kaija Bonde’s rendition. DJK: Everybody, well, a lot of people anyway, have their own story as to where and when they heard Patsy for the first time. Let’s hear yours. B&K: Patsy’s always been there, and a college friend turned us on to the non-hits. But the research for the play and spending time in Nashville really took us to the heart of the music. DJK: Tell us how the whole Patsy Cline tribute show began. B&K: We have been involved with touring musical theatre in this region for nearly 20 years. Six years ago while searching for a show to produce; we saw the play, Always…Patsy Cline in Chicago. We connected with Boyd Bristow as musical director and he connected us with The Poker Alice Band. We have been doing it now for four years. DJK: Name several songs that the audience can expect to hear throughout the show. B&K: It depends on the day, but they will probably hear: Anytime, Back in Baby’s Arms, Bill Bailey, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Come On In, Crazy, Faded Love, Gotta Lot of Rhythm, Honky Tonk Merry Go Round, I Fall To Pieces, If I Could See The World, If You’ve Got Leavin’, It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, Lovesick Blues, Seven Lonely Days, Shake, Rattle And Roll, She’s Got You, Sweet Dreams, Three Cigarettes, Walkin’ After Midnight and Your Cheatin’ Heart. DJK: I’m sure you’ve heard Patsy’s Live At The Cimarron Ballroom. During that performance, she does Shake, Rattle and Roll and she worked that song. To be quite honest, I don’t think we ever got to hear what Patsy was truly capable of. Death has a way of doing that. She was so multi-faceted and all of it had an incredible honesty to it. B&K: Yes DJK: Do you think that K.D. Lang is a close second to Patsy? Do you buy into her claim that she is a reincarnation Patsy Cline? B&K: K.D. is great. Reincarnated? No. DJK: What do you think of the current state of country music? B&K: We lean toward the traditional. The other group we formed, "East of Westerville," focuses exclusively on roots country and bluegrass. DJK: Wouldn’t you agree that a lot of current country music sounds like cleaned up seventies rock? B&K: If all you do is listen to commercial radio, that’s what you’d think. But the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, Mountain Stage, Austin City Limits, the Down From The Mountain tour, and public broadcasting have expanded the nation’s taste for a variety of country music. There’s lots of good current country out there. You just need to look for it, listen to it and pick up a guitar and sing it!
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