{"id":630387,"date":"2026-09-20T10:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630387\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T10:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:30:18","slug":"alyssa-bonagura-americas-backroads-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/630387\/","title":{"rendered":"Alyssa Bonagura: America’s Backroads interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

A decade is a long time between albums, but Alyssa Bonagura has chosen the optimum moment to release America\u2019s Backroads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells the story of the last ten years of my life,\u201d explains the Nashville songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. \u201cThese are songs that I\u2019ve played live or just never cut. When you write songs, sometimes they\u2019re perfect for that moment. At other times they meet you years later and you\u2019re like: \u2018Oh my god, now that\u2019s for me!\u2019 That\u2019s the magic of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The richly autobiographical America\u2019s Backroads, Bonagura\u2019s fourth studio album, details a life spent criss-crossing the States, gathering experiences \u2013 good and bad \u2013 along the way. Predisposed to a sweeping chorus, she\u2019s a classic Southern storyteller at heart, driven as much by rock\u2019n\u2019roll as by rootsy country.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI listened to a lot of rock music growing up, a lot of electric guitar music,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved people like Bonnie Raitt<\/a>, Sheryl Crow<\/a> and Alanis Morissette. And all the women that kind of spearheaded that movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonagura was destined for this kind of life. The daughter of Kathie Baillie and Michael Bonagura, founders of hit country trio Baillie & The Boys, she spent her childhood on the tour bus: \u201cI think it\u2019s because I was surrounded by music all the time. I wanted to be like my parents.\u201d By 1998, aged 10, she was duetting with Kenny Rogers, and at 16 she was opening for Marty Stuart.<\/p>\n

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In 2006 she was granted an overseas scholarship to study sound technology at Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing at the Zanzibar Club while I was there,\u201d she recalls. \u201cPete Wylie turned up one night, saw me playing guitar and singing, and asked me to join his band. To be honest, I didn\u2019t know who he was. But I joined The Mighty Wah! for the next two or three years. That whole experience changed everything. I came into my own as a songwriter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bonagura channelled it all into her 2010 debut The English Diaries. She\u2019s since had her songs covered by Steven Tyler, The Shires and a slew of contemporary country artists. But America\u2019s Backroads is easily her finest statement yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe title track led the way,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about me, my mom and my dad playing in New Mexico, and growing up on the road. I also wrote it because I don\u2019t want any of those memories to go away. They put miles on your soul.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents really got burned by the industry,\u201d she continues. \u201cThey were dropped when they had a number two record, which sounds crazy to me. It made me realise that the ebb and flow of the business will always be there, but that music still has to be the one priority in life. You have to love it enough to just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Alyssa Bonagura: America’s Backroads – Today’s Best Prices<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decade is a long time between albums, but Alyssa Bonagura has chosen the optimum moment to release…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-630387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}