Haley Bonar, Night Moves, Marty Marquis
Recommended
This event is in the past
Fri., Dec. 9, 7 p.m. 2016
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. (formerly the Analog Theater)
Hosford-Abernethy (Portland)
$13
How long can one be under-appreciated? For more than a decade, wickedly talented singer/songwriter Haley Bonar (rhymes with “honor”) has been cranking out top-shelf folk-rock from her home base of Minnesota, first in Duluth (where she was discovered at an open mic by Low’s Alan Sparhawk) and then in St. Paul. She lived in Portland briefly, too. Don’t misunderstand: She has consistently earned positive reviews, and her profile has risen over the years. But Bonar’s two most recent solo albums—2014’s Last War and this year’s Impossible Dream—fully deliver on her considerable promise by stepping up the pace and adding more distortion to the guitars. The result: Two near-perfect pop-rock records that neatly pair toe-tapping tunes and lyrics that grapple with, well, life in general. It’s beautifully bittersweet stuff from a woman who knows what she’s doing, and who does it better than most. BEN SALMON