After three days of folk and bluegrass music, Wildfire Reviews sat down with multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Paine late Monday morning for a fascinating interview. As mentioned in our WinterWonderGrass article, Bonnie is simply an incredible person and extremely talented musician, and it happened to be one of our best interviews we've ever had.
It's worth noting that her band, Elephant Revival, will be celebrating 20 years of existence soon, and this is Bonnie's first time going solo and debuting her own record in May 2026, which surprisingly has not happened yet.
Bonnie was born in Oklahoma but currently resides in Boulder, Colorado, where she's lived for a number of years now. Her album release show will be on May 16, 2026, at the Fox Theater, and we highly suggest all WinterWonderGrass fans to attend and support this incredible musician.
Her first influences in music was Bonnie's own mother who often sung such classics from music icons like Billy Holiday when she was very little. Bonnie grew up with three sisters, who were already musicians when she was young. Her first musical instrument she learned was the drums, when she and her sisters had drum sessions and jam parties at their home when Bonnie was younger. However, it was her eldest stepsister who taught her the most about drumming. After drumming, Bonnie quickly learned the electric guitar, and finally went on to the washboard and the musical saw. Both the musical saw and washboard will make appearances on her upcoming solo record.
One of the first singles on her upcoming album is called "Ashes". Bonnie first was inspired by bird calls, specifically Oklahoma morning birds for this song. The upcoming record has two singles out now that you can listen to via Spotify or any streaming device. The new record is produced by T Bone Burnete and Bonnie exclusively trained with Paul Fraklin. World music is a big influence on Bonnie's upcoming record. She'll also have lots of music guests on the record like the Rising Appalachian sisters. Unseen is her favorite song on the new record.
Bonnie Paine also has a long history with playing WinterWonderGrass festival, and this is the third or fourth time Elephant Revival has played. Some of her favorite things about the festival is that she has a chance to snowboard, and it feels like a family gathering more so than anything else. However, Bonnie's all-time favorite music festival is the Oregon Country Fair which she states has a magical feel to it.
Elephant Revival also has long time histories with bluegrass groups like Greensky Bluegrass and the Infamous Stringdusters, who are also celebrating their 20th year anniversary this year. Bonnie recalls having kickball tournaments with The Stringdusters and having fun with them over the years.
She currently likes listening to all different kinds of music of course, and an artist she recently discovered is South African's Bongeziwe Mabandla.
Of course, we couldn't' help but ask some Elephant Revival questions, especially about everyone's favorite song, "Ring Around the Moon". Bonnie recalls the song came about when visiting the Blue Moon art gallery in Oklahoma, and soon one of the musicians in the group started singing the main lyrics first. The rest of the song came about later, with one story about a helicopter they were seeing one day and wondering if it was a search and rescue and how life would turn out for those surrounding the helicopter that day.
One of her favorite recent memories was meeting Ringo Star at the Grande Ole Opry last year when he released his recent country record which had tons of special guests on it.
When she's not involved deeply in music, Bonnie enjoys swimming and hiking in Colorado of course. One area she likes hiking the most is the Flat Irons out in Boulder. Bonnie also enjoys reading and is currently reading lots of novels, including Becoming Supernatural.
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