Biography: Dave Bartley

Dave Bartley plays mandolin, guitar, cittern, and numerous other plucked string instruments. He has also written over 250 tunes, some of which are working their way into repertoires around the country. He can provide a quiet foundation, inject a fiery driving rhythm, or pull wicked licks out of thin air. His odyssey from flashy rock guitarist to classical musician to eclectic sideman to tunesmith filters through his fingers, making you wonder what he'll do next, playing the music, then playing around, inside, and finally beyond it (whatever that means).

A Seattle native, Dave got his contradance music start with the early Seattle contradance band Scotsbroome and was a member of Apple Maggot Quarantine (voted one of the ten best band names in Seattle). He currently is a member of avant-contra band KGB with Claude Ginsburg and Julie King, Bag o'Tricks with Sande Gillette, Betsy Cooper, and Anita Anderson. He also periodically plays with other groups, including the Avant Gardeners, in various combinations with fiddler Deb Kirkland, flautist Marni Rachmiel, and other Northwest musicians.

Dave has also played English country dance music for a decade, particularly with the Tricky Brits, featuring the same members as Bag o'Tricks.

Dave has also studied and played music of the Balkans, in the past accompanying the dance performance troupe Radost and playing electric guitar with Aegean View. He now plays Greek Rebetika music with in Pasatempo, as well as being in the guitar "rotation" for Pangéo.

In other genres, Dave plays French cafe music with Rouge, accompanies the supple voice of global songstress Gina Sala, plays swing guitar with Ruby Slippers and Sky Blue, and Viennese waltz and other couple dance music with the Valse Café Orchestra.

Besides playing in many parts of the US and Canada, Dave has performed for festivals, dances, and concerts in England, France, Greece, and Australia.

Dave has played mandolin onstage in the Seattle Opera in the 1999 and 2007 stagings of Don Giovanni and played steel-string acoustic guitar with the Seattle Symphony in 2004 for performances of Naive and Sentimental Music by composer John Adams, as well as mandolin for Mahler's 7th and 8th symphonys with the same orchestra.

Playing orchestral percussion throughout public school, Dave picked up guitar at age 12 and, during high school and college, played in a series of rock bands including Aries and Mantis, learning note for note the solos of progressive rock icons such as Yes's Steve Howe and Genesis's Steve Hackett, as well as guitar heroes Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and their ilk.

In his early twenties Dave studied classical guitar with Gary Bissiri for a couple of years and played it professionally on the side while pursuing a career in software engineering. After marrying the love of his life, Mary, he found a new set of heroes in bands like 3 Mustaphas 3 and Brave Combo, and has enthusiastically pursued musical eclecticism ever since.

Click here for Dave's upcoming gig schedule