Mr. Bart Davenport was our guest this past Friday at KPFK and it really was one of my favorite interviews I’ve had at the station. Though this is the first time we’ve actually met, Bart and I have crossed paths a number of times over the past 20 years. I first became a fan of him, without knowing it was him, when I heard “Wishy Washy Woman” from one of his earlier groups The Loved Ones. 
When I moved to the Bay Area in 1999, I became friends with several DJs and musicians because of my time at KALX, including a couple who were close friends of Bart, Kitty English and Sean Sullivan. Somehow though, through all those years, Bart and I were never formally introduced until this past week. Over that time, Davenport has released music with several groups, The Loved Ones, The Kinetics, Honeycut and Incarnations, as well as releasing a half dozen solo releases, with Physical World being his most recent one. Davenport performs four songs acoustically, three from his most recent record, “Dust In The Circuits,” “Wearing The Changes” and “Every Little Step,” as well as a cover of Prefab Sprout’s “Lions In My Own Garden.” During the interview we talk about a variety of things including Davenport’s songwriting sensibilities, how moving from the Bay Area to LA has affected his music, and some of the themes and stories behind the new album Physical World, particularly my favorite song on there and an early candidate for “song of the year,” his anthemic “Fuck Fame.” Davenport and his cohorts are currently touring Europe, but will be stateside in the summer and you shouldn’t be surprised if he makes a return visit back to the station with the full group or to play some records in the near future.
