Doveman ~ Footloose

Footloose

Released on June 30, 2008
HWY-019
Digital


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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

Notes



Someone told us that Paramount had remade the film Footloose so we thought it was time to re-release this poignant remake of the soundtrack by Doveman (aka Thomas Bartlett). Because of various complications with publishing clearances, for now the album is only available for purchase as a download via Bandcamp and select digital retailers outside of the USA.

We all know what motivated the new version of the film, namely money. Here are some thoughts from Thomas's friend Gabriel on what motivated the Doveman cover version.

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 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 two Doveman albums and is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at UCLA.)

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.