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Album Review

Bart Davenport
Searching for Bart Davenport Tapete Records

Article written by Ged M - Feb 15, 2011

Searching for Bart Davenport

Bart Davenport is a California troubadour whose Searching for Bart Davenport is a songbook of influences by his “heroes”. He’s covered all these tunes in his set, to the point that they become interchangeable with his originals: “I forget where the songwriter ends and the singer begins” he says.

The songs are all acoustic, with folky influences (including Bridget St John, Incredible String Band, Bert Jansch) and jazzy ones (Caetano Veloso, Gil Scott Heron) too. But it starts poignantly with a cover of Broadcast’s ‘Come On, Let’s Go’, on the record long before Trish Keenan’s tragic passing. As he says, acoustic performance can reveal a song’s inner beauty, which is the case here, and it emerges as a fine, unplanned tribute. The song also shows off Davenport’s Arthur Lee-like voice, which also sounds good on the Love-song ‘Wonder People (I Do Wonder)’. He covers a Kings of Convenience track (‘Cayman Islands’) which reminds you that they were responsible for the headline “quiet is the new loud”, thereby ushering in a generation of sappy acoustic singers. Bart's not that, and you have to take seriously a man who's opened for Robyn Hitchcock, Arthur Lee, Jonathan Richman and John Lee Hooker, but ultimately you end up looking for more contrast. It's good in places but, for an album of cover versions of different artists, this all feels strangely one-dimensional.

Links:
http://www.bartdavenport.com/
http://www.tapeterecords.de/artists/bart-davenport/
http://www.myspace.com/bartdavenport