STILLWAY & BONHAM AGAIN - Album Review, Lake Oswego Review - Phil Favorite They may have been born half a world apart, but when Jamie Stillway and Ben Bonham play guitar together, it’s clear their paths were meant to cross.That happened soon after Stillway, a West Coast native, and Bonham, a British ex-pat, moved to Portland in 2002. The two met at Artichoke Music on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard and quickly formed a musical partnership that’s still going strong. “You can really hear our musical synergy coming through,” said Stillway, speaking of the 11 original songs that make up the new record. “We recorded it mostly live and limited ourselves to the number of takes we would do. Then, we picked the ones that stood out.” “Again” is a follow up to a CD Stillway & Bonham released 14 years ago, and since then, the two have played together enough to appreciate their natural, musical chemistry. When Bonham completed a new recording space in his hometown of Hood River, the two were inspired to write and record another CD’s worth of material. “You get a hell of an impact from playing with the other person,” he said. “We’re much, much more when we play together than I am on my own.” Bonham is known in the local picking circles for his extensive work in Hawaiian music and his expert playing on vintage National steel guitars. Concertgoers can expect to see a fine display of slide and lap slide playing from Bonham. The classically trained Stillway applies a fingerpicking style to older musical realms such as ragtime, gypsy jazz and blues. She’s known nationally as an elite player who works as a representative for Santa Cruz Guitar Company and Munich-based Stevens Custom Guitars. When meshed, their varying styles combine to give Stillway & Bonham a sound all their own. “We conveniently gravitate toward styles that we play well,” Bonham said. “Also, we write in the forms that we know best.” Raised in England, Bonham is far from your typical English folkie.“I was 12 years old when punk rock hit the U.K.,” he said. “I hated folk. I hated rock. I hated disco.” But a cassette of old-time American country blues given to him by a girlfriend struck a chord with Bonham. “It was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and it changed everything,” he said. “I have always been fascinated by the pre-war musical styles. When I first came to the States, I was playing a lot of country blues stuff and nobody seemed very familiar with it.” Bonham found a kindred spirit in Stillway, who — after mastering the classical guitar at a young age — began expanding her playing palette under the influence of a ragtime teacher. “The first thing he showed me was a finger-picking style for 12-bar blues,” Stillway said. “Then I got to learn all this other stuff. And that’s when I started learning to play by ear.” Working together, Stillway & Bonham capitalize on their talents for improvisation as they seek to complement each other on the songs each brings to the mix. For the recording sessions for the new CD, each player brought a fresh batch of original compositions and allowed the other to add their instinctive touches to the music. “It’s very much in the jazz-improvisational format,” Bonham said. “It’s since working with Jamie that’s I’ve learned how to jam.” “We both realized a long time ago how much fun it is to play together, and it’s been that way since the first day we met,” Stillway said. BIO's and other reviews Ben Bonham has worked professionally as a performer, educator and session musician for 20 years. He makes his home in the beautiful Hood River valley in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. Ben’s guitar playing is rooted in the music of pre-radio America when all music was LIVE and styles weren’t pigeonholed. Like his favorite musicians from the 1920’s, Ben’s range comfortably spans genres—on any given night you might catch him playing country blues, ragtime, vintage swing, Delta blues, folk, jazz, old-time country, and Hawaiian. Since moving to Portland, Oregon in 2002, Jamie Stillway has quietly been making her mark in the world of fingerstyle guitar. She has toured nationally and internationally, received an endorsement from Stevens Custom Guitars of Munich, and has become an in-demand instructor; teaching at the Healdsburg Guitar Festival, California Coast Music Camp, and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. She has self-released 3 albums of original compositions, and her style of playing has brought comparisons to Leo Kottke, Django Reinhardt, Bill Frisell, Rev. Gary Davis and more. “Ben Bonham, an expat Brit, spends most of his time on National Steel guitars and lap steels. He devilishly evokes front-porch picking sessions and Hawaiian luaus with his liquid strokes, but can cop a nasty swing on demand. . .a supremely accomplished guitarist” –Don Campbell, The Oregonian “Mixing up genres without pretension, the nimble Stillway moves freely with wit and creative restlessness.” Jazz Times “Cerebral jazz with blues roots and humor. Instrumental guitar at its best.” The Oregonian