Mixtape: Bonnie and Taylor Sims

Mixtape: Bonnie and Taylor Sims

This is an intimate live show in downtown Longmont, Colorado presented by The Soundpost Sessions at The Times Collaborative featuring two songwriters and host Monica Marie LaBonte all on stage swapping songs and stories in-the-round. Music is from 7-9, doors at 6:30. Join us for this very special ongoing musical series every second Thursday of the month!

$10 Advance

$15 Door

March 14th, 2024 features: Bonnie Sims (of Big Richard and Everybody Loves an Outlaw) and Taylor Sims (of Madeline Hawthorne Band and Everybody Loves an Outlaw)

Bonnie Sims: https://www.bonnieandtaylor.com/

I started singing as early as three years old, my father was a professional musician and played children's music for a living. Growing up I played at theme parks and summer festivals with my dad in a traditional string band, singing and playing mandolin and acoustic guitar. I played at Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington) and Silver Dollar City (Branson) as well as public libraries all over TX in support of my father's musical summer reading program. As a young child I sang on the theme song for the nationally syndicated children's television program, Wishbone, as well as recorded two family band albums with my father, Mike Cruciger.
I went to South Plains College to pursue commercial music and songwriting, and ended up meeting my husband and future musical partner there as well. He was already playing in a bluegrass band based out of Lyons, CO, so after graduating I joined him in CO and started writing and playing live shows, forming my own band Bonnie & the Clydes and releasing four studio albums over the next ten years. In 2020 we re-branded from Bonnie & the Clydes to our current project, Bonnie & Taylor Sims and pursued a more Americana-Rock songwriter sound which we continue with today.

Taylor Sims: https://www.bonnieandtaylor.com/

I officially started my professional career in music in 2004 at the age of 19 but my path to that moment started a while before that. At the age of 16 I started playing guitar and gave up nearly all other pursuits. No more football, no more sports, no more clubs. All guitar. Fast-forward two years and I was off to college to study commercial music at South Plains College in Levelland, Tx. There it would become clear that a career as a professional musician and songwriter was the only path for me. My first band 'Spring Creek' was formed in my graduating year and we started playing gigs in and around the Texas Panhandle. We were a bluegrass band and Texas is not a bluegrass state and we needed a new scene. So the band packed up and headed for Boulder, Co.
We began touring in and around Colorado as well as the greater west, making a decent name for ourselves as we went. In 2007 we entered the Telluride Bluegrass festival band competition and won first place there and then two months later we entered the Rockygrass Festival band competition and won first there as well. We were the only band before or since to win both in the same year. That feat gave us a great deal of bluegrass industry clout and set us on a rocket trajectory for the national scene which of course led to much more touring and a rigorous schedule over the next five/six years. We played 150-200 dates a year in that time and like the tires and transmission on the church van, it wore us out. We made four full length albums with one of those being released on the historic label Rebel records and other awards and accolades to our credit. In 2011 I won 'Americana Song of the Year' for a song I penned on our fourth album. Near the end of 2012 we had all had about as much as we could take of life on the road and decided to call in quits and the band Spring Creek was no more.

Hosted by: Monica Marie LaBonte monicamariemusic.com

From a wide-eyed tike delicately pressing the keys of her mother’s upright piano to a seasoned artist taking various stages across the country, Monica Marie LaBonte has always been guided by song. In her over 10-year career, the Colorado native has played hundreds of venues, including the historic Gold Hill Inn and Planet Bluegrass. For five years, she carried the torch of Women in Song at the Laughing Goat and enjoyed booking, playing alongside and meeting artists from all over the country. Monica is thrilled to be the Creative Director and host of Mixtape. She believes in the power of community and music and cannot wait to see what magic happens when musicians share stories and songs on stage together at the Times Collaborative.

Host or Publisher Soundpost Acoustics