BY KAREN BOSSICK

Karla Bonoff was just 15 when she embarked on her songwriting journey, playing her heartfelt songs in a duo with her sister called the Daughters of Chester P.

Growing up in West Los Angeles, she began hanging around with other musicians at the Troubadour, a folk club with room for 150 people on the floor and another 20 in the balcony. And, there, she met people like Linda Ronstadt, who helped jumpstart Bonoff’s career by recording three of her songs.

“I was I was lucky and really honored to have incredible artists like Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt record my songs. You can’t ask for better artists to come in and interpret your songs,” she said. “Most of it happened after I’d been struggling as a songwriter for 10 to 15 years. I hadn’t made my first album so it was a recognition I was writing well.”

Since, Bonoff has gone on to have her own recording career. Signed as a solo artist to Columbia Records in 1977, she began touring globally in 1977 with hits like “I Can’t Hold On” and “Personally.” And she cemented her status as a respected artist in 1989 with her “All My Life,” which won a Grammy as a duet featuring Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville.

She will perform some of her hit songs—both the ones she recorded personally and the ones that artists like Ronstadt recorded--at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at The Argyros in Ketchum.

Tickets for “A Very Special Evening with Karla Bonoff” are $28 and $48, available at www.theargyros.org/.

“I’ll play with the great guitar player Nina Gerber, who is well known in northern California. We’ll do songs from all my albums and some new stuff, as well,” she said.

Had she grown up in another city, another state, Bonoff said, she may not have found the success she did.

But lined up every Monday at noon to get a slot in the Monday night Troubadour open mic hoot which provided a launchpad for many singers and songwriters. There she rubbed elbows with the likes of James Taylor, Elton John and Jackson Browne.

“I don’t think at the time we thought it was anything unusual. Looking back, I realize how lucky I was to be there with people like Jackson Browne.”

Bonoff put together a songwriter band called Bryndle with Kenny Edwards, a fellow songwriter she met at the Troubadour who would go on to start the Stone Poneys with Linda Ronstadt.

“Bryndle put together an album but it was never released. I think we were a bit ahead of our time,” she said.

Happily, however, Bonoff was able to get a demo of her song “Lost Again” to Ronstadt through Edwards. Jazzed about Bonoff’s work, Ronstadt recorded that song, along with “Someone to Lay Down Beside Me” and “If He’s Ever Near.”

“I didn’t go to college--I dropped out to start working on my music in my early 20s. And I was wondering, ‘Wow! Is this going to work out for me?’ ” Bonoff recounted. “Along came Linda, and I was lucky enough to be around her because my friend Kenny Edwards was in the Stone Poneys with her. I got to go to shows, rehearsals, parties at her house. And we became friends.”

Ronstadt was on the fast track to becoming a star at the time.

“She was such an incredible singer, and she was a great mentor for me. She was such a musical person with so much obvious talent--an incredible voice that could sing any kind of music from opera to mariachi. And she had the ability to choose wonderful songs.”

In the 1990s Bonoff, Kenny Edwards, Andrew Gold and Wendy Waldman reformed Bryndle,  their concerts bringing the house down with Bonoff’s songs like “Daddy’s Little Girl,” “Under the Rainbow” and “On the Wind.” And in 1999 Sony/CBS Legacy released a 16-song collection of Bonoff’s songs titled “All My Life—The Best of Karla Bonoff.”

Bonoff continues to write.

For me, it’s just sitting down every day at the piano or guitar and coming up with little bits of melodies. Of course, writing songs for movies is completely different because you have parameters,” said Bonoff, whose movie credits include “About Last Night.”

Bonoff has been described as one of the finest singer/songwriters of her generation, her songs picked up by people like Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood and Lynn Anderson. She also was featured in the recent Linda Ronstadt documentary,” The Sound of My Voice,” which highlighted her friendship with Ronstadt.

For now, she’s looking forward to her very special evening at The Argyros.

“We’re just happy to be able to be touring and seeing the fans come out,” she said.