Lib at Large: Songwriter Bonnie Hayes heading to Boston's Berklee College

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FOR THE PAST 15 years, Bonnie Hayes has been living the good life in Marin County. A successful record producer, she owns her home in San Anselmo, has a daughter she's putting through college, plays keyboards with one of the county's most popular bands and enjoys the music business respect she's earned as the songwriter who penned the hits "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart" for Bonnie Raitt.

At 58, she's com-fortable in her own skin. Maybe a little too comfortable.

That's one of the reasons she's renting out her house, packing her stuff and moving to Boston for a prestigious new job as the chairwoman of the songwriting department at the Berklee College of Music, the largest

Courtesy of Bob Hakins Songwriter and musician Bonnie Hayes has been selected as chairwoman of Berklee College of Music's songwriting department.

school of contemporary music in the world.

"It's the year of the snake and I'm shedding my skin," is how she puts this radical change in her life. "I'll be someone else when I come back."

A decade and a half ago, Hayes left Los Angeles and moved to Marin with her then 4-year-old daughter, Lily, now a 19-year-old student who left home a year ago to study at Boston University.

"I moved here for a reason, to have a nice life for my kid," she said the other day after wrapping up work on Tommy Castro's new album. "I've been living a nice suburban lifestyle, but now that my daughter's gone it's too mellow a context for me. I may be nuts, but I really like being scared and surprised and challenged by what I do."

Before she

goes, her Marin fans will have a chance to wish her well on Saturday night, when she plays a "Bye-Bye Bonnie" show at Rancho Nicasio with Mystery Dance, a band she co-leads with bassist Tim Eschliman.

Hayes spent last summer teaching a full load of classes at Berklee, so when a full-time teaching position came up, she applied for it. On a lark, when the chairman of the songwriting department also came open, for the first time in 35 years, she threw her hat in the ring for that job, too, thinking she probably wouldn't get it, but what would it hurt to apply?

So when the call came in May that Berklee wanted her as the new head of the songwriting department, beginning in the fall, she suddenly found herself with a major life decision to make.

"When I got the job, I really had to think if I wanted it," she recalled. "I'm really, happy here, but I had to ask myself, 'Are you happy because you're in Marin County, or are you happy because you know how to be happy.'"

She decided that she might be unhappy if she turned down a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like this, and would always second-guess herself, wondering, "What if?"

And, besides, this kind of challenge not only fits her self-described OCD personality,

Courtesy of Tom Dellinger Songwriter and musician Bonnie Hayes has been selected as chairwoman of Berklee College of Music's songwriting department.

it offers the kind of personal security, including health insurance and other benefits, that life as a freelance record producer and songwriter doesn't. Plus, she'd be close to her daughter, who will be attending Berklee this year.

"I've been making a living as a record producer, but I could see that I was going to have to ramp it up or it was going to go away," she said. "And I wasn't sure how long this wave I've been riding on is going to last, so I realized I'd better start thinking ahead or it's going to get ahead of me. I always thought I would coast into relaxed obscurity, and here I am ramping up. I'm agape at my own capacity for intensity because this job is topping anything I've done before. But I can't help it. I have to do it."

In her new post, she'll supervise a staff of eight full-time and five part-time teachers, develop the curriculum, monitor its progress and communicate her vision for the future. She'll teach one class, basic lyric writing.

"I don't think teaching is enough for me, but running a department and creating curriculum gives me experience I really need that I can bring back here in 5 or 10 years," she remarked. "I love my community here, but there are world-class musicians, educators and visionaries at Berklee. There is so much going on there. I'm looking forward to playing at that level."

Rancho Nicasio owner Bob Brown, who's known Hayes and her brothers for decades, sees the Berklee post as "a wonderful opportunity."

"Of

Courtesy of Tom Dellinger Songwriter and musician Bonnie Hayes has been selected as chairwoman of Berklee College of Music's songwriting department.

all the artists I've dealt with over the years, she's he most accomplished all around musician. I've never met anybody as well-rounded as she is. Berklee is fortunate to have her."

The eldest of seven children, Hayes attended the Blue Bear School of Music in San Francisco when she was growing up, as did her brothers, Kevin Hayes, former drummer for Robert Cray, and Chris Hayes, lead guitarist and a songwriter for Huey Lewis and the News. Bonnie also has taught songwriting at Blue Bear, including at its summer camp program, and serves on the school's board of trustees.

In the Bay Area, she's best known for her work with Bonnie Hayes and the Wild Combo, a band that released the album "Good Clean Fun" and toured with Huey and the News in their '80s heyday. An eponymous solo album followed on Chrysalis Records and featured the single "Some Guy," which was covered by Cher, the first time one of her songs was recorded by another artist.

Her big break came when she was in L.A., getting ready to go on the road with the Go-Go's Belinda Carlyle. Raitt came to her hotel room and asked to record her songs "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart" for her 1989 album, "Nick of Time," which would sell 6 million copies and win three Grammys, including Record of the Year. "Have a Heart" was the album's biggest hit. Just like that, Raitt was a superstar and Hayes was a songwriter to be reckoned with.

"It brought me into the A-level of songwriters," she remembered. "I was gratified to be taken seriously as a songwriter by the big boys."

Since her latest solo CD, "Love in the Ruins," in 2004, she has occasionally performed with her bands Superbonbons and Mystery Dance and has been playing keys with Danny Click and the Hell Yeahs.

She's reluctant to sing "Have a Heart" or "Love Letters" when she performs these days, joking, "I'm off beating my famousness to death. I always feel like I'm pulling out my gun and waving it around."

But she doesn't deny what those songs have done for her, and continue to do for her.

"They've given me credibility," she said. "And that cred is what got me this job."

Contact Paul Liberatore via email at liberatore@marinij.com; follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LibLarge. Follow his blog at http://blogs.marinij.com/ad_lib.

if you go

What: Bye-Bye Bonnie Bash, featuring Bonnie Hayes and Mystery Dance
Where: Rancho Nicasio, 1 Old Rancheria Road, on the Town Square, Nicasio
When: 8:30 p.m. July 20
Admission: $15
Information: www.rancho nicasio.com

Source: http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_23681965/lib-at-large-songwriter-bonnie-hayes-heading-bostons?source=rss_viewed

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