Doveman - Footloose (2008)

Link

Un día, hace ya muchos años, fui a ver en Nueva York a Freedy Johnston en vivo. Tocaba en un barcito de la Avenida B --en ese entonces, una zona todavía bastante densa-- y no había más de cien personas adentro. El show consistía en tocar, íntegramente, "Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars" con su guitarra. La "puesta" del disco fue una verdadera y grata sorpresa para mí, y tal vez aquel episodio sea el motivo por el cual cada vez que me entero de un proyecto similar le presto atención. Y ese es el caso de este "Footloose".

Es que es toda una curiosidad este disco, integrado por versiones acústicas --e irreconocibles-- de la banda de sonido de la película "Footloose" (1984), cuyos temas interpretaron originalmente artistas tan olvidados como Kenny Loggins, Bonnie Tyler, Deniece Williams, Sammy Hagar o Shalamar. Poco más que voz y teclados integran este disco de Thomas Bartlett, un tecladista que grabó dos álbumes como Doveman y que suele ser músico de sesión de bandas como The National o de Antony & The Johnsons. Hecho en memoria de la hermana de un amigo suyo que murió (debajo pueden leer la historia), se trata de un álbum melancólico y nostálgico, muy diferente en tono al original. No es un gran disco --tampoco el original lo era, más allá de los recuerdos preadolescentes que pueda traer--, pero vale la pena escucharlo.

Songs

1. Footloose
   
2. Let's Hear It For The Boy
3. Almost Paradise
4. Holding Out For A Hero
5. Dancing In The Sheets
6. I'm Free (Heaven Helps The Man)
7. Somebody's Eyes
8. The Girl Gets Around
9. Never

About the Album

"When I was very young, my half-sister Jenny died tragically. She was a teenager, and it was the 80's. She left behind a wardrobe of brightly colored clothes, rainbow stickers, life-size paintings, doodles on lined paper, and hundreds of tapes. These constitute most of my memories of her. It's sad for me to look at these things, and usually I don't. But a couple of summers ago I found a tape of hers with a startling cover photograph - this was Footloose. I couldn't stop listening: it was a portrait of 80's love, desire, pain, freedom, and frenzy; of being a teenager in a time of change. By listening, I could step into Jenny's shoes, see things from her vantage point. I could be emancipated by rock and roll and walkmen, just as she had been. We could listen together.

I asked my friend Thomas to cover the album, which, sheltered as he is, he had never heard before. I was clear that I wanted to him to cover the whole album - the point wasn't to rework any one song, but to re-imagine the picture they made together. With a new Footloose we could reply to the past, tell our own story about being young. This is what he made."

-Gabriel Greenberg

(Gabriel Greenberg, a childhood friend of Thomas's, has illustrated the covers of both Doveman albums.)

About Doveman

26-year old Thomas Bartlett is one of New York's most in-demand keyboard players, collaborating and touring with artists such as Glen Hansard (Once, Swell Season), The National, Martha Wainwright, Antony, David Byrne, Bebel Gilberto, and Yoko Ono.

Doveman is Bartlett and his select group of collaborators. When listening to this music you should keep in mind artists such as Frederic Chopin, Cat Power, Keith Jarrett, Talk Talk, and Chris Whitley -- unless you don't know any them or are not a fan, in which case you should keep in mind Nick Drake, The National, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, and other, trendier bands whose music has recently appeared in car commercials. Doveman does not rehearse, but they sure can play.