Why Bonnie

Why Bonnie, the New York-based project of Blair Howerton, is Fire Talk Record’s newest signing. “Dotted Line” is the band’s first piece of new music since 2022’s 90 in November, their album praised for its nostalgic depictions of wide-open spaces that earned comparisons to fellow Americana travelers Waxahatchee and Wednesday. And while their beloved debut “glistens with [a]…sun-soaked sentimentality” (Uproxx), “Dotted Line” signals new sonic territory. There’s still a twinge of country, but here, pop and rock influences are at the forefront.

“Dotted Line” was written when Howerton was experiencing “the weight of capitalism,” onset by a period when she was “broke as hell” and spiraling. “I was thinking of all the things we’re told are markers of success, and how at this rate, I’ll probably never have any of them.” To sign the “dotted line” in question is to make a Faustian bargain. “Good days ahead after you pay,” Howerton, or the devil, promises on the chorus, the backing beat as hypnotic as any hustler. “Dotted Line” is written as a rallying cry, a defiant kiss off directed at the forces that be who, Howerton says, “are just turning the wheel.” The video, co-directed by Howerton and Grace Pendleton, is a tongue-in-cheek take on getting into bed with “the man.”