Haley Bonar is twenty-five years old and already on her fourth album. Her latest album, Big Star, was a watershed moment for her—a record like a Cormac McCarthy short story: simple on the intake, but revealing universal truths with a powerful emotional impact as it sinks in. In the words of filmmaker Ali Selim (Sweet Land) "Her voice is an invitation to amazing places."

Bonar was born near Winnipeg, raised in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and cut her teeth on the winters of Duluth, Minnesota. She presently calls St. Paul her home.

Her first album, Haley Bryn Bonar, was recorded when she was seventeen. It bore the signature of someone who was punk, but not really punk rock—she owned an acoustic guitar and created folk songs of her own style, yet liberally innocent of the concept of "anti-folk.” Her follow-up release, The Size of Planets, landed her on the radar. It was released on Low's Chairkicker's Union label, and inspired by the greats: Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Loretta Lynn. Voted one of the best albums of 2003 by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, it received rave reviews from the likes of the Philadelphia City Paper, Minneapolis City Pages, Chicago Sun Times, Pulse Magazine, and Alternative Press.