Doveman

Biography

Born in Vermont, Bartlett studied piano in London with Maria Curcio before moving to New York City. As a teenager, he and lifelong collaborator Sam Amidon formed the folk music band Popcorn Behavior (later known as Assembly), and released three albums.

Upon moving to New York in 2001, Bartlett soon began performing with Chocolate Genius and Elysian Fields, and also worked as Salon.com's music critic, writing first a weekly "Wednesday Morning Download", and later the daily "Audiofile" feature. In recent years, Bartlett has performed and toured extensively with artists like The National, Antony and the Johnsons, Mike Doughty, Martha Wainwright, Glen Hansard (in both The Frames and The Swell Season) and Bebel Gilberto.

The first Doveman record, "The Acrobat", 2005, was produced by Patrick Dillett, one of Bartlett's most frequent collaborators. It was followed in 2007 by "With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead," again produced by Dillett, and released by Brassland Records. In 2008 Bartlett released a self-recorded solo re-imagining of the entire Footloose soundtrack. 2009's "The Conformist," again produced by Dillett, featured members of frequent Doveman collaborators The National, as well as backing vocals by Norah Jones, Glen Hansard, Beth Orton, Martha Wainwright, and Dawn Landes.

Production discography

Sufjan Stevens, "Carrie & Lowell"
Martha Wainwright, "Goodnight City"
Magnetic Fields, 50 Song Memoir
The Gloaming, "The Gloaming" and "The Gloaming 2"
Anna Calvi, "Strange Weather"
Glen Hansard, Rhythm and Repose and Didn't He Ramble
Hannah Cohen, "Pleasure Boy" and "Child Bride"
Bell X1 (band), "Chop Chop" (co-produced with Peter Katis)
Sam Amidon, "But This Chicken Proved Falshearted", and "Bright Sunny South" (co-produced with Jerry Boys)
Justin Vivian Bond, "Dendrophile" and "Silver Wells"
Trixie Whitley, "Fourth Corner"
Dawn Landes, "Bluebird"
Julia Stone, "By the Horns"

Selected sideman discography

The National, "Boxer," "High Violet," "Trouble Will Find Me" "Sleep Well Beast"
Antony and the Johnsons, "The Crying Light," "Swanlights," "Cut the World," "Turning"
David Byrne, "Here Lies Love"
Father John Misty, "I Love You Honeybear", "Pure Comedy"
Rufus Wainwright, "Out of the Game"
Martha Wainwright, "Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris" and "Come Home to Mama"
Bebel Gilberto, "All in One"
Elysian Fields, "Bum Raps and Love Taps," "The Afterlife," "Last Night on Earth," "For House Cats and Sea Fans"
Miho Hatori, "Ecdysis"
Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle
Sharon van Etten, "Tramp"
Angus & Julia Stone, "Angus & Julia Stone"
The Swell Season, "Strict Joy"
The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, "Midnight Sun"
Plastic Ono Band, "Take Me to the Land of Hell"
Marisa Monte, "O Que Voce Quer Saber de Verdade"
Iron & Wine, "Kiss Each Other Clean"
Joshua Bell, "Musical Gifts from Joshua Bell and Friends"
Trey Anastasio, "Traveler"
Frightened Rabbit, "Painting of a Panic Attack"
Ed Sheeran, "÷"
Lisa Hannigan, "At Swim"
Little Scream, "Cult Following"

Burgundy Stain sessions

In January 2011, Bartlett, as Doveman, began a monthly salon style performance series at West Village club (Le) Poisson Rouge, called the Burgundy Stain Sessions, inviting Bartlett's friends to join him and the band on stage. Over the course of the year, performers included Norah Jones, Glen Hansard, Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Sara Quin, Beth Orton, Sam Amidon, Nico Muhly, Elysian Fields, Chocolate Genius, Julia Stone, Chris Thile, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, Lisa Hannigan, St. Vincent, and many others.

In October 2011, Bartlett music-directed, and co-curated with Hansard, a two night evening at (Le) Poisson Rouge, inspired by the Burgundy Stain Sessions, and celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Other Voices, an Irish music TV show. Performers included Laurie Anderson, Damien Rice, Bell X1 (band), The Lost Brothers, Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner, Gabriel Byrne, Paul Muldoon, Colum McCann, and others.

On October 11, 2012, NPR began a week-long broadcast series devoted to special performances that were captured at The Burgundy Stain Sessions.

On March 5, 2013, the first International Burgundy Stain Session took place at the Adelaide Festival in Australia. On December 14, 2014, Bartlett brought the Sessions to the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland with a line up consisting of Anna Calvi, Glen Hansard, Paul Noonan, Conor O'Brien and Lisa O'Neill.

Music Director and curator

Bartlett occasionally performed with Lou Reed, and was the music director for a 2016 show of Reed's love songs at Lincoln Center, featuring Lucinda Williams, Laurie Anderson, Anohni, Mark Kozelek, David Johansen, and many more.

He has directed and co-curated two gala benefit concerts for St Ann's Warehouse, one featuring Lou Reed, Emmylou Harris, Bill Frisell, Sam Amidon, and Karen O, the other with Alan Cumming, Glen Hansard, My Brightest Diamond, and Sting.

In 2015 he curated and directed a performance of musical interpretations of W.B. Yeats' work at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, featuring Anna Calvi, Justin Vivian Bond, Robert Forster, and more.

Also at the National Concert Hall, he and Sam Amidon co-directed a tribute to Pete Seeger (who they had known and played with as teenagers).

Film work

Bartlett composed and performed "The Hunter and the Hunted" for Volker Schlondorff's film Return from Montauk.

He played on and co-wrote "Wish That You Were Here" with Florence and the Machine for Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.

Bartlett, working with Joan As Policewoman, wrote the score for the film upcoming film Permission, starring Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens.

In February 2012, the Museum of Modern Art premiered a new collaboration between Doveman and filmmaker Tom Kalin, with Kalin's images set to songs from "The Conformist". The full piece, titled "My Silent One", was premiered in July 2014 at Outfest in Los Angeles.

Bartlett composed and performed the score, and acted as music supervisor, for the 2014 film Trouble Dolls, starring and co-directed by Jess Weixler and Jennifer Prediger. He also composed the music for Matthu Placek's short film A Portrait of Marina Abramovic.

The Gloaming

In 2011, a new band called The Gloaming was formed, featuring Bartlett, Martin Hayes, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and Dennis Cahill. They debuted in Dublin at the National Concert Hall. The Gloaming's self-titled debut album, produced by Bartlett, was released in 2014 on Real World Records and Brassland, to wide critical acclaim. The album won the Meteor Choice Music Prize for Irish album of the year. The band's second record was also produced by Bartlett.

Other collaborations

In 2008, Bartlett, Sam Amidon, and Nico Muhly, all native Vermonters, embarked on the "802 Tour", performing a melange of each other's songs and compositions. Muhly and Bartlett continued collaborating, eventually forming a group called Peter Pears, after the great English tenor, and will be releasing a record of their songs together in 2018.

In 2011 Bartlett and Patrick Dillett made a remix of Tegan and Sara's "Alligator", featuring a guest vocal by Amidon.