Alyssa Bonagura is one of those artists who has quietly crept up on us. Having seen her in little 20-30 minute support slots opening for Twinnie and the mighty Morganway - Alyssa had established herself who armed with a guitar could get any crowd revved up and in the mood for the headliners.
She is most definitely an Anglophile and is certainly well at home in the UK and knows her Underground from her subway. Even from those few shows, we came away with a number of her tunes forever etched in our mind, "Road Less Travelled" , "Coming Up From The Underground" and the crowd singalong of "Make My Own Sunshine" to name but three.
The thing that has elevated her to being a "Must See" is her recent Alyssa Bonagura and friends show at The Bedford on Independence Day. With three acts nominally supporting it was something of a surprise when she was the first act to appear.
To a packed crowd, and we mean packed like we have never seen The Bedford before, she would barely leave the stage over the next 2 and half hours, and every song she sang seemed like an old friend, even if you were only hearing it for the first time. Occasionally she would take a short break to let one of the support acts, sing a song or two with her normally taking to the stage to join them in a duet for their final number. This joining forces with the support act reached its absolute peak when she was joined by Morganway's SJ Mortimer for a searing version of "Piece Of My Heart" that all but shook the foundations. If Alyssa bring even half of the energy from that night she may well still blow everybody else off stage!!
Watch Alyssa & SJ at The The Bedford
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TfUVD8VbjI
Alyssa Bonagura will be playing
Saturday Front Porch Stage 20:10
Sunday Front Porch Stage 21:35