Bonnie Paine of Elephant Revival joined Meredith Carson live on KGNU for a rare solo performance, sharing new songs including Ashes and More to It. She spoke about Small Town for a Cause, a two-day festival in Salida on September 19–20, featuring Elephant Revival, Moontricks, Lindsay Lou, and more. The event raises awareness for community causes, including the preservation of Hutchinson Ranch and research on tick-borne diseases. Paine also performed with Elephant’s manager, Ryan Dart, and demonstrated her unique talent on the musical saw. (Studio Session: 9/12/25)
Meredith Carson: Next up we have Bonnie Paine live. We don’t get to have Bonnie solo very often, so we are delighted to have you this morning. Thank you. Bonnie, of course, is an integral member of Elephant Revival. They could not do it without you, ma’am.
Bonnie Paine: Oh, well, thank you.
Meredith Carson: It’s the truth. It is the dang truth. So, you’re here to play for us this morning, and you all have a really cool gig coming up.
Bonnie Paine: Yeah.
Meredith Carson: Talk a little bit about that.
Bonnie Paine: Yeah, we’re playing in Salida on September 19th and 20th for Small Town for a Cause. It’ll be right on the Arkansas River in the downtown pavilion with a lot of other fun, awesome bands.
Meredith Carson: Yeah, two days of music and lots of fun. Is it mostly Colorado bands?
Bonnie Paine: They’re from all over. We’ll do a collaboration with Moontricks from Vancouver, and then the Winter Wonder Women are from all over. They’re a bunch of fabulous, awesome ladies. Who else? There are so many good bands. Lindsay Lou will be there—she’s out in Nashville. There are a lot of amazing bands. Bonfire Dub will always be awesome. They’re putting on the show. They’re from Colorado.
Meredith Carson: And so that is Small Town for a Cause, and it’s probably smalltownforacause.com. People could look it up. It’s a two-day festival, so you could try that. I’ve got a little bit more information about it, which we’ll talk about later, because we have a couple of passes to give away—after you’ve done your fabulous thing here with us.
Bonnie Paine: Oh, really?
Meredith Carson: Bonnie is in this morning to sing and play whatever she wants to. Why don’t we start out with a couple in a row?
Bonnie Paine: Okay, sure. Let’s see here. This is an unreleased song I just recorded called Ashes.
[00:02:00 – Song: Ashes]
Meredith Carson: Bonnie Paine live on KGNU.
Bonnie Paine: Yeah, there are usually so many other people to talk to—it’s my first time doing this alone.
Meredith Carson: Well, I think you’re doing just great so far.
Bonnie Paine: Thank you. Alright, I’ll play another song. This one’s called More to It, ’cause there always is.
[00:05:00 – Song: More to It]
Meredith Carson: Bonnie Paine singing, playing, and whistling here in KGNU studios. It’s so much fun to have you here. Thank you. We’ve had Elephant Revival in the big studio, the Cabaret Studio, I think several times over the decade. And it’s really fun to have just you, and to introduce our guest here.
Bonnie Paine: Yes, this is Mr. Ryan Dart. He’s Elephant’s manager and has a record that he’s about to release.
Meredith Carson: Alright, Ryan, cool. Make sure KGNU gets a copy.
Ryan Dart: I’ll do it.
Meredith Carson: Thanks. We’ll get you on the air. He also has a very good-looking guitar. I like your pick guard.
Ryan Dart: Yeah, it’s called Special Tiger Plastic.
Elephant Revival (Ryan): It’s a ’30s reissue, 1930s style. Very cool. I’m working on my Willie hole here.
Meredith Carson: Well, nobody does it like Willie, so we’re just gonna give you a lot of room. So this cool event coming up—Small Town for a Cause in Salida next weekend—two days of music on the Arkansas River with Elephant Revival and a bunch of other bands. So what is the cause that we are celebrating here?
Bonnie Paine: Yeah, there are a few of them. One is to try to save the Hutchinson Ranch, which is a longtime ranch that needs some help—a very good cause for the community. And then one is the Colorado Tick-Borne Disease Foundation. It’s to help raise awareness and research for Lyme disease mostly. Yeah, which we could use a little more information about. Oh boy, could we. If you know anybody struggling with it, hopefully this helps out. It’s just a great community event to give access to kids, to music and instruments, and all that.
Meredith Carson: Well, I went camping up around there a couple of years ago and we came into town one afternoon and sat by the river in that park. The Arkansas is a really unusual river. It’s so beautiful.
Bonnie Paine: I love that river. I grew up near Tulsa where it’s been through all the industry. A lot of the people putting on this festival usually bring awareness to keeping our wild rivers clean. So yeah, maybe someday it’ll be clean all the way in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Who knows.
Meredith Carson: My mother grew up in Tulsa.
Bonnie Paine: Oh, cool.
Meredith Carson: Could we get you to sing another song for us?
Bonnie Paine: Yeah.
Meredith Carson: And ladies and gentlemen, I have to warn you, she has a lethal instrument now that she’s going to play—the saw. There are not very many musical instruments that you actually could wound someone with. And just quickly, have you ever had a bad accident with your saw?
Bonnie Paine: Let me think… apparently not. I use it for cutting parts for my washboard—sometimes I have to get a little piece of wood for under the snare. I tried to fly with it once. They were like, “Ma’am, it’s a blade.”
Meredith Carson: I know.
Bonnie Paine: We’ve used it for cutting all kinds of wood.
Meredith Carson: Yeah.
Bonnie Paine: It’s good for it—it keeps it, you know, in character.
Meredith Carson: Well, it’s an actual what, 28-inch handle?
Bonnie Paine: Mm-hmm.
Meredith Carson: Mm-hmm.
Bonnie Paine: Mussel and Westphal. Yeah, it works. Ryan Dart’s gonna play guitar on this one. This is a song called Over the River by George Gritzbach.
[00:10:00 – Song: Over the River]
Meredith Carson: Fabulous. I love the song. I love the way both of you play on that. Thank you so much for coming in. This has just been so much fun. Have a fabulous time in Salida next weekend.
Bonnie Paine: Thank you.
Meredith Carson: You all camping?
Bonnie Paine: Oh no, but we might be poking in and out of the campsite.
Meredith Carson: I imagine. Yeah. How can you stay out of the campgrounds?
Bonnie Paine: There’s a lot of fun to be had there. Yeah.
Meredith Carson: Absolutely. The Colorado and Texas music festivals really do that whole thing in the campgrounds. Other than that, not so much.
Bonnie Paine: That’s how I started playing the saw. It’s a great opportunity to learn instruments around camps—camps of all kinds of stuff.
Meredith Carson: So there was just somebody lounging outside a tent playing the saw, and you’re like, “Could you show me?”
Bonnie Paine: Yeah. They were so sweet. And I met them 20 years later—I was playing at a party in Lyons, and this older couple kept giggling and laughing. Finally they were like, “We knew that was you! Remember, we gave you a saw, let you play it, and you played it for like eight hours. And we knew it was you ’cause you made that same funny face whenever you played it.” I was like, “Oh, yep, that’s me.”
Meredith Carson: Your face remains fairly neutral. I have to say it’s a good thing they noticed that. Thanks again for making time, and I’m sure what is a busy day for you guys, to come in and do this for KGNU. We appreciate it so much.
Bonnie Paine: Of course. Thank you for having us.
Meredith Carson: You are so welcome.
