Nashville, TN – August 3, 2011 – If you aren’t in the music industry, you may not know her name. But if you are, you know that Bonnie Garner is something special. With a career spanning more than 35+ years, this dynamo has credentials that are hard to match. She has managed stars’ careers, run a record company’s A & R department, booked venues and major television shows, managed various European, U.S. and Pacific Rim tours and help book several Farm Aids.

She was the program coordinator for the “Dick Cavett Show” in New York and was responsible for bringing several cutting edge talents into the show mix, including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Delaney and Bonnie, Black Panther leader Donald Cox, and Frank Zappa.

After booking legendary promoter Bill Graham on the Cavett Show, he hired her as his Executive Assistant at the Fillmore East. After it closed its doors, Columbia Records’ Clive Davis and Kip Cohen hired Garner as the only woman A & R (Artist & Repertoire) Executive in the label’s Pop Department. She worked with Delaney & Bonnie, Springsteen, Billy Joel, Dan Fogelberg, Eric Anderson and many others.

Garner accepted the challenge of setting up Columbia and Epic Records’ first Nashville Pop Division, working with Dan Fogelberg, John Hiatt, Tracy Nelson and others before transferring to Columbia/Epic’s Country Division as Director of A & R. In 1984, Bonnie was promoted to Vice President of A & R. She was the first woman to attain this position at CBS Records and one of the few in the entire music industry. Garner has helped manage the careers of Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Marty Stuart, The Highwaymen, Roger Miller, The O’Kanes and Emmylou Harris.

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