The North Shore Music Association is excited to welcome Ray Bonneville back to the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on July 13. 

Known as “a song and groove man,” Bonneville has a style that has drawn comparisons to JJ Cale and Daniel Lanois. His music is blues-influenced and flavored by his years living in New Orleans.

Ray Bonneville has lived the life of the itinerant artist. From his native Quebec, he moved to Boston at age twelve, where he learned English and picked up piano and guitar. Later, he served in Vietnam, then lived in Colorado, Alaska, Seattle, and Paris. Six years in New Orleans infused his musical sensibilities with the region's culture and rhythms. Then, after two decades working as a studio musician, playing rowdy rooms with blues bands and living hard, Bonneville began to write his own music. His original songs are gritty narratives inspired by a lifetime of hard-won knowledge set against his steely, soulful guitar and harmonica playing, accented by stirring foot percussion.

Bonneville has performed on albums by Mary Gauthier, Gurf Morlix, Eliza Gilkyson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and other well-known Americana/Roots artists. He shares songwriting credits with Tim O’Brien, Phil Roy, and Morlix, among others. He is a winner of Canada’s Juno award, and in 2012 he won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge Award.  His latest album, On the Blind Side, was released earlier this year. 

The concert starts at 7:00 pm on July 13 at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts (51 W 5th Street, Grand Marais). Tickets are $20 general admission, for sale in advance at https://www.northshoremusicassociation.com/ and at the door starting at 6:00 pm.