When she was 14, Bonar got her first guitar and learned a few basic chords from friends. She says she modeled herself after musicians like Ani DiFranco and Elliott Smith, "the people who were rocking out but still songwriters" at heart, and before long she had written enough of her own tunes to record an album. She began working the open-mic circuit in Rapid City and recorded her first album, Haley Bryn Bonar, in the attic of a farmhouse when she was 17

Onstage, Bonar is delicate and serious, sometimes bordering on endearingly meek. In photographs, she often wears a contemplative frown, her beauty emanating from behind a wall of introspective stillness. But in her day-to-day life, Bonar comes alive with an unassuming confidence, her brow wrinkling and relaxing to reveal every change of mood. She makes frequent jokes, mostly about herself, and speaks animatedly using a different voice and expression for every story.