Tracy Kristin Bonham (born March 16, 1967) is an American alternative rock musician. Born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, she is a classically trained violinist and pianist, and is also a self-taught guitarist. She worked in various jobs around the music industry while composing music on the side before being signed to Island Records in 1995. Bonham rose to prominence with the release of her Grammy-nominated debut album The Burdens of Being Upright (1996), which peaked at number 54 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) less than a year after its release. The album's lead single, "Mother Mother", topped the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart in June 1996, a first for a female solo artist; Bonham became the only person to achieve this feat until Lorde in 2013. Delays plagued the release of her second album, Down Here (2000), which failed to chart internationally; Bonham parted ways with Island a year after the album's release, after which she turned her attention to working with other musical artists, including The Blue Man Group, with who she appeared with in their The Complex Rock Tour Live tour and live DVD in 2003. In 2004, Bonham signed to the Rounder Records imprint Zoë Records, with whom she issued her third album Blink the Brightest (2005). She has since worked with various other record labels and released three more albums, Masts of Manhatta (2010), Wax & Gold (2015) and Modern Burdens (2017), the last of which is a re-recording of The Burdens of Being Upright. Biography Life and early music career Born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, Bonham began singing at age five and playing the violin at nine. As a teen she received a full scholarship to the University of Southern California for violin, but she eventually transferred (and moved) to Boston, Massachusetts in 1987, where she attended the Berklee College of Music to study voice instead. While there she started writing songs and in early 1995 she released her first EP, The Liverpool Sessions, and the single "The One" won best single in The Boston Phoenix reader's poll. The Burdens of Being Upright After recording at Fort Apache Studio in Cambridge for several months, in 1996 Bonham released her debut full-length album The Burdens of Being Upright. Magazines such as Rolling Stone and People noted her bold approach to rock music. The album