Bonnie Lee Panda

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Record Journal 1-15-04

Cheshire Herald 1-29-04

Hartford Courant 1-29-04

Pine Loft regular has a big voice with talent to match

By Ralph Hohman
Record-Journal staff

BERLIN – Growing up in Cheshire, Bonnie Lee Panda tried gymnastics. She tried running cross-country.

“I’ve always known I wanted to do music,” she says, as musicians strum and tune around her, awaiting their turns at the Pine Loft Café’s weekly open-mike Monday. “I’ve known it since I was 8.”

Still, she waited until after she graduated from college to pick up a guitar.
“I learned guitar so that I can back myself up.” Panda says

She’s a regular at the Pine Loft, and one of the favorites of the musicians and customers who hang out there. Today she’ll be a less familiar face in Mount Laurel, N.J., one of four regional sites in USA Network’s “Nashville Star” country music talent show.

In November, Panda and one other singer, Season Hankins, were advanced out of preliminary competition at the Cadillac Ranch in Southington. Winners at the regional sites go to Nashville, where they try to follow last year’s champion, Buddy Jewell, and earn a recording contract with Sony. Details and updates are at www.usanetwork.com/nashvillestar.

Unlike “American Idol,” “Nashville Star” includes original music, and contestants who actually play instruments. Panda has been playing guitar for about three years now, gaining ground quickly. Last year she entered Nashville Star, too, but didn’t make it out of the Cadillac Ranch.

“I feel like this year I was a lot more prepared,” she says.

She sings and plays out somewhere four or five times a week – “as much as I can”—at open mikes and booked gigs like her Jan. 31 engagement at the Pine Loft. She quit her job at a cell-phone store a while back to put full-time effort into music.

It wasn’t crazy – she’s 24, and her voice can make a roomful of musicians hush. She’s got looks to match, and a name (especially since she stared using the Lee) that sounds like it was made for a country singer.

Doug Hardy, who runs the open-mike shows at the Pine Loft, remembers the first time Panda signed up.

“It’s not a quiet room here – it’s an open mike,” he says. “But when she stared to sing, everybody stopped.”

It was much the same this Monday, as people leaned over the railings on the upper floor as Panda sang two original songs. Her presentation was relaxed and confident, her voice commanding and expressive, especially when she fingerpicked her guitar.

Panda sang in the Cheshire High School select choir, the VIPs, and formed an all-female a cappella group while a student at the University of Connecticut. Later she sang in a jazz band that played paying gigs in bars.

“I made good money,” she says. “But it wasn’t what I wanted.”
Country music was. Panda says she really discovered it when she was in Cheshire high School.

“I just love the stories and the twists in the songs, and the values.”

This being a ways from Nashville, her viewpoint isn’t always shared. At the T-Mobile store where she worked, she says she was constantly switching the radio to country station. Her co-workers were constantly changing it to something else.
Her own voice is different from what you might expect from a country singer – classically trained, rich and full.

“I’ve kept the breathing, using the diaphragm,” she says. “But I have my own style, and how I phrase my words is my own.”

Her guitar playing is understated, the better to make room for that big voice. She considers herself a student at songwriting, where she gets collaborative help from another singer, Erik Balkey.

“He’s good at concrete images and I’m good at feelings,” she says. “If I wrote a song, it would be all full of mush.”

Panda had a taste of Nashville after graduating for UConn, when she went for a week and saw all the clubs and musicians digging their way up a hard ladder.

“The main thing I learned is there are a lot of people out there that can sing,” she says. “I decided I need to work on my music here.”

A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Folk And Soul

By Shannon Becker
Herald Staff

Drawn to the hard working, family-oriented, deep-rooted values accentuated in country music, Bonnie Lee Panda has embraced the genre and made it her own. A serene calm comes over her when she picks up her guitar, and a rich, classically trained voice flows from deep within her soul.

Panda, a 24-year-old Cheshire native, has dreamed of a career in music since she was in grade school and every move she’s made since college graduation has put her one step closer to her dream.

Panda competed in the first three rounds of the USA Network “Nashville Star” competition this past November. She was selected as one of two local finalists out of 115 entrants to move on to the regional competition in New Jersey in January.

“It was an all-day event,” Panda said. “There were video interviews, and we practiced with the Nashville Star Band, who were just amazing.” Panda and her competitors performed one minute of a cover song and two minutes of their own music before a panel of four judges – two members of the band Goo Goo Dolls, a Nashville producer and a Nashville radio disc jockey.

“I didn’t make it to the finals. But I did my best and it was a really great experience,” Panda said. She had her family there to cheer her on, but their good wishes and her talent weren’t quite enough. “The judges were looking for a certain image and a certain sound,” Panda said. “They said I wasn’t country enough.”

Although she’s not packing her bags for Nashville, her experience has made her more determined than ever. Panda said the experience was a defining moment for her. “I know now that I don’t want to fit into a certain type. I want to be known for having my own unique style.”

But that style is a little hard for her to define. When pressed, Panda said it’s a little country folk with lots of soul. That deep rich voice that just booms from her petite frame started developing back in elementary school.

She started singing when she was 8, taking part in a talent show at Norton School.
She had a solo performance in the choir there and although painfully shy, she continued to force herself out into the spotlight.

“I knew I loved singing, but at first I was just so shy,” Panda said. “I would make my friends and family go outside and listen through the door or turn around when I was singing.”

She gradually gained confidence, and while in her sophomore year at Cheshire High School tried out for the VIPs – a select choral group which is primarily a cappella. “And I just fell in love,” Panda said.

She started training privately and her senior year sang the soprano lead in Our Town in 1997. She continued to sing in college, co-founding the first a cappella group, The Chordials, at the University of Connecticut.

In 2001, Panda took a trip down to Nashville where she visited the haunts of famous country singers and songwriters. She stopped at the Bluebird Café and visited many honky-tonks to see other performers in action.

“They could sing and play and were just so put together,” Panda said. “I knew if I wanted this to be my career, I needed to really put together a complete package.”

Panda came home to Cheshire and started learning the guitar. She sang in two different bands – one jazz and one country – for both money and the experience. She then quit the bands and her job at T-Mobile to focus all her efforts on her solo career.
Panda is busy honing her craft – writing music, strengthening her guitar skills and learning the business side of the industry.

One of her favorite pieces is a song she wrote called “Child Within My Heart,” and as she begins to sing her voice just grows and resonates throughout the room until everything else just fades away.

“The song is really about finding who you are and learning to love yourself,” Panda said. “I came up with the lyrics after sitting down with a friend to talk about my music and what I wanted to do.”

Panda has also written several other songs, including a tribute to her mother, Kathy, called “Just by Watching You.” Panda has begun putting together a CD with all her own originals, which she hopes to have out in 2004.

“I love to perform and share my music with others. From the time I was eight I knew my passion was singing. I’d be spending time with my dad on Sundays and when we were driving in the car, I’d be daydreaming that I was the one singing on the radio. I’m now living that dream,” Panda said.

She’s now a regular at the Pine Loft Café’s weekly open-mike night Mondays and will be performing there with Erik Balkey, a national touring troubadour from Philadelphia, and Season Hankins, the other finalist selected with Panda to move on to the regional competition in New Jersey. The performers will take the stage at the Pine Loft Café on Saturday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m.

“In my 25 years of working with singer-songwriters in Connecticut, I have rarely met anyone with as much potential, poise and talent as Bonnie Lee Panda. Bonnie has a beautiful, crystal clear quality to her voice that leaves the audience wanting more,” said Don Donegan, the founder and president of the Connecticut Songwriter’s Association.

For more information on Panda, visit her website at www.bonnieleepanda.com

Bonnie Lee Panda has “Something to Talk About”

By Amy Ellis Luna
Hartford Courant Staff writer

She was aiming for Nashville, but for now, you can see country singer Bonnie Lee Panda Saturday night at the Pine Loft in Berlin.

After competing in the local USA Network’s “Nashville Star” auditions at the Cadillac Ranch in Southington last November, Panda 24, of Cheshire, was selected as one of two local finalists. Panda and Season Hankins advanced to the “Nashville Star” regional finals in January, but neither made it to the next round.

But don’t feel sad for Panda. She’s busy writing songs and performing locally at the Pine Loft and The Space in Hamden, among other venues.

Panda will be joined Saturday by two special guests: Hankins and national touring troubadour Erik Balkey.

Q: You made it to the “Nashville Star” regional finals in New Jersey on Jan. 15. What was that like?
A: Well, there are four regionals around the U.S., and there were 28 people at my regionals… There were people from Canada. We had a guy from Ireland; he’s actually the one who won. He was good. We had people from everywhere.

Q: What did you sing?
A: Everyone sang on minute of a cover song, and actually you sang with the “Nashville Star” band… They were awesome… I picked Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to Talk About.” It’s not really a country song, but it was the one that I liked the best. Then I sang 2 minutes of an original song.

Q: Who was on the judging panel in New Jersey?
A: Two guys from the Goo Goo Dolls, a Nashville producer and then a Nashville radio DJ.

Q: So there were people from the music industry watching you perform. That must have been cool. How far did you make it at the auditions?
A: Well, everybody performed their cover song and their original song. It’s very similar to “American Idol.” The judges told you what they thought. I was really nervous all day long, but by the time I got up there, I was comfortable, and I was excited. I had a feeling they were going to say I wasn’t country enough because the songs I had picked were not very country. But I decided I was just going to do my best and knew the results weren’t in my hands. So I got up there and did my best. They said they thought I had a really nice voice, and they said exactly what I thought: They were looking for something a little more country.

Q: Did any of the judges give you a Simon Cowell-like critique?
A: No. And I’m glad, because they were mean to some people.

Q: Looking back, do you wish you had sung something a little more country? Or were you happy with your selections?
A: Well… it was the one song that I really liked [that was on the list to chose from].

Q: And obviously you are going to pick something you’re comfortable singing.
A: What I realized the most from the competition – I think it was awesome I made it that far – … I’ve had a lot of publicity from it, and it was just an awesome experience interviewing and doing all this different stuff. But being there, I realize that I think it would have pigeonholed me a little bit. I have a lot of people enjoy the way I sing now, and I like the way I sing. I don’t want to have to sing a certain style or sing a certain way. It really showed me that I’m going to keep going forward. I’m not quite sure that’s the direction I would have wanted to go in.

Q: If “Nashville Star” has auditions in Connecticut again, would you go?
A: I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t know what’s going to happen next year. My goal is to continue doing what I’m doing; I’m saving up enough money, and I keep writing so I have enough songs to put on a CD. I have a lot of friends that are singer-songwriters, and they tour around. That’s my goal for the next year, just to keep doing what I’m doing, and maybe I’ll try out, but I don’t know where I’ll be. I think it was a good experience, but I realize I don’t think that’s exactly the way I want to go about doing my music.

Q: You’re performing at the Pine Loft Saturday. Have you ever performed there before?
A: Yes, I perform at open mikes there a lot on Monday nights. And I had a show at the end of October. I love the venue. It’s very conducive to acoustic music. It’s got a nice stage, there’s a fireplace, and it’s really cozy.

Bonnie Lee Panda performs Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Pine Loft Café, 1474 Berlin Turnpike, Berlin. There is an $8 cover charge. Information: 860 829-2312 or www.pineloftcafe.com. For more information about Panda, visit www.BonnieLeePanda.com.