As we get ready to shut the lid on the dumpster fire that defined 2025, celebrated alternative multi-genre’d artist TRACY BONHAM is ready to pour accelerant on the flames with her festive holiday song. The cheekily-titled holiday track serves as a single-finger salute to a politically crummy year. “This year I’m calling out the chaos, naming the nonsense, hopefully making people laugh along the way,” she says.
While we discovered this year that the bottom of the barrel wasn’t, in fact, the bottom, it proved to be a banner year for Tracy’s creativity. Her album Sky Too Wide (which was released on June 6, 2025) was greeted with overwhelmingly universal and critical acclaim. American Songwriter characterized her “Beatles-melodic” songs as “impassioned messages of perseverance.” Hipster-leaning tome Bearded Gentlemen Music praised that “Sky Too Wide proves Tracy Bonham is an artist’s artist… The lyrics are catchy, the production is clear and rich, and the instrumentation is world-class.” Among other publications lavishing praise include People Magazine, New York Times, Brooklyn Vegan, Boston Herald, Village Voice, Aquarian Weekly, All Music, Riff Magazine, JammerZine, Illinois Entertainer, Vanyaland, among many others.
Tracy’s smashing live shows this year included a NYC event hosted by close friend/comedian/actor Fred Armisen at the legendary Joe’s Pub and a very special performance in Oregon where her music was conceptualized by Eugene Ballet. “I am feeling more creative than ever,” Tracy beams, looking back at all she has accomplished. “The momentum from 2024 / 2025 propels me as I crave getting out in front of audiences more.”
Continuing to satiate that live performance need, Tracy has a handful of upcoming shows, including a special guest appearance at Joe’s Pub with BETTY (where she will perform “Un-F*k This F*kt Up Christmas” for the first time live), a unique show with strings in New York City at The Iridium, a special tribute to her close friend Jill Sobule for Jillith Fair at NYC’s City Winery and at The Fallser Club in Philadelphia, and two shows in Madison, WI for Joey’s Song, Freezing Man Concerts – a benefit with multiple artists for raising money and awareness for people with epilepsy. “Real life can be scary,” she explains. “The stage is my safe place. I feel like the stage is one of the most comfortable places I have to exist in this world, and it’s the safest place for me to share my voice.”
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