Sometimes when a talented musical family is in demand by everyone, you can't catch them playing together. In a rare moment, guitarist Eddie Taylor Jr. and drummer Tim Taylor appeared with  singer Larry Taylor as Larry's band played in the…

Better Boys Foundation has served youth on the West Side since the late 1960s.  Bonni asked videographer Chris Wilkinson to record a 2013 concert there, featuring profound West Side blues singers Larry Taylor and Willie D. Freeman. BBF featured the…

During early 2014, Bonni pulled together research from books, on-line links and videos to write over three dozen blues biographies, and major descriptive stories for the Maxwell Street Foundation website. The foundation grew out of a group that protested the…

West Side blues history and today's talented players can be thought of as assets to this struggling community. Austin is the farthest-west neighborhood in Chicago.  The Austin Weekly News and Oak Park Journal are doing writing and advertising campaigns to…

From the summer of 2013 West Side morale-boosting tour:  Bonni leads Joe B's band in learning her song, "West Side is the Best Side," a tribute to the historical heroes of West Side blues, in a July 27, 2013 concert…

During the summer of 2013, Chicago's West Side has had a rough time, marked by fatal shootings, unemployment, foreclosures, school closings and general misery.  Nonprofit community organizations are trying to address the pileup of urban problems in this part of…

Darnel Johnson, owner of Chicago's Home of Chicken and Waffles, welcomes the Barrelhouse Ladies to the new restaurant at Evanston, IL, north of Chicago, which opened in late January 2013. Bonni and Gloria performed Friday night Jan. 25.   Already the…

With the help of Chicago's bluesmen and women including Abb Locke, West Side Wes, Killer Ray Allison, Lamont HArris, and Larry Taylor, Bonni and movement instructor Miss Taj led  people of all ages in writing their own blues verses during…

The Barrelhouse Ladies (Gloria Shannon and Barrelhouse Bonni) performing at Ellie's Cafe, as portrayed in the Southtown Star, distributed by the Chicago Sun-Times:

http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/neighborhoodstar/oaklawn/15514205-521/ahern-music-food-and-fun-at-ellies-cafe-in-beverly.html

Barrelhouse Bonni and schooled Beckley trumpeter Bob Redd (also a teacher and running coach) helped the statewide WV Senior Conference have a blast!  May 2012 at Cedar Lakes, near Ripley WV.

Aug. 2011: In a post- Diamond Teeth Mary Festival jam at Gino's pizza, Barrelhouse Bonni backed two national harmonica pros, Phil Wiggins from Maryland and Adam Gussow from New York.  It turned into a harp duel, which the Huntington, WV…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHwpstaoa4w

Video from Oak Park Library samples songs and story by Bonni with Larry Hill Taylor from Black History Month library tour for Taylor's autobiography Stepson of the Blues: A Chicago Song of Survival.