Background
Koloc was born in Waterloo, Iowa, to a working-class family: "I guess you could say we were poor. We lived in a cement block house outside the city limits of Waterloo, Iowa, and my dad worked in the John Deere factory.
Koloc was born in Waterloo, Iowa, to a working-class family: "I guess you could say we were poor. We lived in a cement block house outside the city limits of Waterloo, Iowa, and my dad worked in the John Deere factory.
Her material continues to be recognized and valued by historians of Chicago folk music as well as by her long standing fan base in that area. Money was very tight. I wore a lot of hand-me-downs, and I thought that people who had indoor johns must be rich.
I spent a lot of time during my high school years trying to get myself together from my childhood."
The first of her family to attend college, she enrolled in the University of Northern Iowa, first majoring in drama, then art, paying her way by singing, but becoming increasingly dissatisfied with university life.
She abandoned her studies to go to Chicago, where she became a fixture of the influential Earl of Old Town. She has, however, maintained her iconic status in the Chicago area where she is considered, along with Steve Goodman and John Prine, to have been a quintessential influence in the development of Chicago folk music during the 1970s and beyond.
Her signature song, "Jazzman", written by Editor Holstein, continues to be requested at concerts, and Bonnie"s inimitable rendition is often considered to have elevated this musical piece into the realm of vocal art