Published August 10, 2019

For longer than I care to admit (only because it dates me), I’ve been a Karla Bonoff fan. At one point, I may have even been a stan, decades before anyone thought to coin the term. Thing is, I’ve loved her music for many years!

Thanks to a friend’s generosity, I saw her in concert in my hometown. I had all of her albums on vinyl, including one that I won in a radio station contest! My fandom quickly reached this level and beyond:

Yes, I'm that woman who says, "Have you heard the Karla Bonoff version? It's her song! She wrote it!"

— Carly J ? (@CeeJayDubois) August 5, 2019

(Noting that because I have since deleted my Twitter account, the original tweet no longer displays.)

The above was true if anyone mentioned Linda Ronstadt’s versions of “Someone To Lay Down Beside Me”, “Lose Again” and “If He’s Ever Near” from her “Hasten Down the Wind” album. Ditto after Ronstadt and Aaron Neville turned “All My Life” into a big hit, and after Wynonna Judd took “Tell Me Why” high up the country charts a handful of years later.

A few years after I’d reached the age of making myself useful by being old enough to drive, my mom asked me to get behind the wheel to take her mother back home after a visit. Driving east on Interstate 10 in Louisiana, I popped in a cassette, the followup to Christopher Cross’ eponymous debut album.

The first song to play was the third song on Side 1.

“Is that Karla Bonoff?” my mom asked.

Ever prepared to show off my Karla Bonoff bona fides, I chuckled and said, “No, it’s Christopher Cross!” (This happened a long time ago, and my memory is a bit foggy, but … it’s possible I was a bit bratty about it. I may have softened the correction by suggesting that the road noise from driving 60 mph probably made it hard to hear the song clearly, but I was firm in telling her that the singer was not Karla Bonoff.)

Only later, upon further inspection of the liner notes to the album, “Another Page,” did I come to realize that “What Am I Supposed to Believe” was a duet featuring — oh, you already know how this story ends — Karla Bonoff.

I told my mom. I’m sure of it. I’m also pretty sure that I was in no hurry to tell her.

You were a saint, Mom.

Photo of I-10 over the Atchafalaya Basin by photo.eccles/via Shutterstock.