“David Poe gives the singer-songwriter genre a much-needed jolt.”
—Rolling Stone
David Poe’s new album Everyone’s Got A Camera begins and ends with straightforward songs for a world in reckoning. In between is a musical treatise for an age in flux that is as daring as it is profound. From 1960s-tinged rock & roll to quasi-trap, with nods to the contemporary folk and acoustic music for which he is best known, Poe’s new songs take on the handoff between this century and the last, surveillance culture, and the ongoing battle between fact and opinion with a plain-spoken philosopher’s wit.
“People Clap Hands” is a soulful chant that invokes the opposite of a fist; “Time There Is Still,” considers the difference between progress and actual change; the urgent beat and fiery orchestra of “Analog” underscores Poe’s longing for a time when progress and creativity were not measured in emoticons and follower counts. “Now I’m part of history,” sings Poe, “When the music cost money but the water was free.” But if it casts a critical eye, much of this record sounds exuberant. “Post” is a simple pop-rock tune about a breakup and its aftermath as played out in public on social media. “Gun For A Mouth” could be the theme song of Twitter, though it rocks like an homage to 1967.
In an era of pop music that tends to either turn away from big concerns or focus on small ones, Everyone’s Got A Camera feels both new and old, as surprising as it is inevitable.
Rolling Stone writes, “David Poe gives the singer-songwriter genre a much-needed jolt.” The Village Voice calls Poe “the major domo of songwriters.” “Every songwriter worth their salt is striving for the kind of balanced poetry and simplicity that Poe seems to just pour out,” says No Depression. “It’s hard to deny the expert craftsmanship of Poe’s songwriting,” wrote Paste Magazine of “What The President Said,” a topical song from 2017 which enjoyed the public support of Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda. The London Independent compared his songs to “miniature novels.”
Poe has toured the world with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Tori Amos, and many more. A composer fellow of the Sundance Institute, his work features in numerous film, TV, dance and theater projects, official selections of the Sundance Film Festival.
In September, Poe joins David Bowie saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his band to sing Bowie’s final masterpiece Blackstar in its entirety with the Charlotte Symphony. In October, Poe joins maverick recording artist Blake Morgan for a series of co-headlining US concert dates on the West Coast. Poe’s music will accompany new work by the Los Angeles Dance Project in a world premiere at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar as it hosts the World Cup this December.
Songs by David Poe have been performed by a wide array of artists and recorded by producers including T-Bone Burnett, Larry Klein, Buddy Miller, and Dave Sitek. He has also produced recordings for other artists, including Regina Spektor and Kraig Jarret Johnson. Shadowland, a collaboration with contemporary dance company Pilobolus, toured for a decade and was performed on five continents, for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and was released as a feature film.
Transplanted from the American Midwest to New York City, David Poe served as the sound engineer at CBGB’s 313 Gallery before signing with Sony/Epic. He currently lives in Los Angeles.