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David Poe is a songwriter, performing artist, composer, and record producer who has released eight solo albums, numerous singles, and toured internationally. His songs are known for their poetic clarity and memorable melodies, and have been recorded by artists from multiple genres.

Poe is a composer fellow of the Sundance Institute. Music performed and written by Poe has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including Nashville, The Today Show, and Dexter. Poe's music for dance includes scores commissioned by Rambert Dance Company, the LA Dance Project, American Repertory Theater, Pilobolus, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and Harvard Dance. The Village Voice called Poe “the major domo of songwriters.”

Early Life and Education
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and raised in Dayton, Ohio, Poe's high school band won 10 free hours of recording time in a talent competition and recorded two songs he wrote that were played on local radio. Soon the group was opening for national touring acts including Jonathan Richman, Ten Years After, Mountain, Herman's Hermits, and comedian David Brenner. Poe played in other musical projects throughout his college years, including bands with Gustafer Yellowgold creator Morgan Taylor that opened for alternative rock acts like The Smithereens, 10,000 Maniacs, A Flock Of Seagulls, Tiny Lights, Treat Her Right, Beat The Clock, and Trip Shakespeare. Soon after graduating from Miami University, Poe moved to New York City, became the sound engineer at CBGB’s 313 Gallery, performed regularly in Manhattan music venues, and eventually established a band with drummer Sim Cain and upright bassist John Abbey. The trio recorded an EP and Poe was signed to a recording contract with Sony Music. His debut album was produced by T Bone Burnett.

Music Career
Albums & Tours (1997-2007)

David Poe (1997) “David Poe gives the singer-songwriter genre a much-needed jolt.” wrote Rolling Stone of his self-titled debut. Hits magazine proclaimed him “a stunning new talent.” The album was engineered by Susan Rogers at the Magic Shop in New York and features Sim Cain on drums, John Abbey on bass, and guest appearances by guitarist Marc Ribot. Poe toured the album as the opening act for Tori Amos, The Jayhawks, Bob Dylan, and Chris Whitley.

The Ballad Of (1997) An EP featuring Blue Glass Fall, the first single from his debut, and two live covers — Big Star’s The Ballad of El Goodo, recorded live at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA, and The Zombies’ Tell Her No, recorded live at Irving Plaza in New York City. Poe has since toured the world. Some notable venues and festivals include the Fillmore West, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, The Andy Warhol Museum, Central Park Summer Stage, Levitt Pavillion, South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX, T In The Park in rural Scotland, Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, WA, and on syndicated radio shows including NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, Air America, Mountain Stage, World Café, XM Radio, and Voice of America.

The Late Album (2002) “Poe is still a poet,” wrote Rolling Stone of his follow-up The Late Album, produced by Brad Jones and Steve Rosenthal and mixed by Jones and Michael Brauer. “If on his eponymous freshman release David Poe was brilliantly brooding in bedroom melancholia, the long-awaited The Late Album finds the alt-folker peeking out to see himself reflected in the world.” Poe’s song The Drifter was featured on Dawson’s Creek. He toured the UK with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze, Japan with Bill Bonk, the US with Joan Baez, and Scandinavia with Ed Harcourt and The Tiny. At the end of the album's touring cycle in 2004, Poe helped produce Concerts For Change in New York, Minneapolis and London, registering thousands of new American voters in an effort to change American leadership. The concerts featured performances by Robyn Hitchcock, Moby, The Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, Polara, Duncan Sheik, Kraig Jarret Johnson & The Program, and Adam Masterson.

Love Is Red (2005) was recorded mostly live in a bombed-out, bullet-ridden bunker in Berlin with drummer Sim Cain and bassist John Abbey. “All three of Poe's full albums have been warmly received by the press,” wrote NPR. SF Gate called it “the best make-out album of the year.” The song Doxology was featured on The O.C. So Beautiful was featured in the film Transamerica. Tours for the record included bills with Vanessa Carlton and Lifehouse. First released by Universal Music Group/The Lab/Fuel, the album was remastered in 2019 by Blake Morgan and re-released by ECR Music Group.

David Poe: Live from the Artists Den (2006) A 7-song EP featuring live and on-air radio performances. Some of these recordings were culled from the televised PBS special David Poe: On Stage at World Café Live, later released on DVD.

Music for Dance & Film (2008-2011)

The Copier (2008) The Copier: Music for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet was Poe’s first instrumental score for dance. The piece was performed in August 2008 by New York City’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and choreographed by William Forsythe protégé Jill Johnson. “David Poe’s richly layered original score integrates much mechanical noise,” wrote The New York Times.

Harvest (Music From The Motion Picture) (2010) An EP featuring songs written with colleague Duncan Sheik for the independent film Harvest, directed by Marc Myers and starring Robert Loggia, Barbara Barrie, and Arye Gross. The film was a New York Times Critics Pick and later aired on Showtime.

Shadowland (2011) Shadowland, Poe’s fifth album, was the soundtrack to the award-winning, first-of-its-kind show by the dance company Pilobolus. To date Shadowland has toured in 32 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and The Americas where it has been seen by over a million people, made into a full-length film, and performed for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Poe’s song New Friends was featured in the film Triple 9.

Recent work (2014-2024)

God & The Girl (2014) was recorded by Emile Kelman in Los Angeles after Poe relocated there from New York. Primarily a quiet, acoustic album, God & The Girl was regarded as a return to form and met with widespread critical acclaim. “Every songwriter worth their salt is striving for the kind of balanced poetry and simplicity that Poe seems to just pour out,” said No Depression. Thank You (Big Bloody Heart) was recorded by Ana Moura for her album Desfado, produced by Larry Klein. The album topped the Portuguese Albums Chart and certified 6× Platinum, the best-selling album of the 2010s in Portugal, by a Portuguese artist. “It’s God and the girl but really … all songs are about time,” Poe said to the Associated Press in a 2014 interview.

Who Built The Wall (2016) A video single produced in collaboration with Univision's Track Record project was released weeks before the American presidential election of 2016. It addressed controversial remarks on immigration made during the campaign.

What The President Said (2018) A single that featured voices from the 2018 Women's March, and an animated video created with illustrator Vanessa Sweet. Paste Magazine wrote, “He seamlessly weaves in the layers of the handclaps and protest cries from the Women’s March, which magnify the song’s timeliness and relevance.” The song was shared online by Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda, who wrote “I was moved and inspired.”

Red Sky Blues (2020) Written during the George Floyd protests and rush-released on Bandcamp with all proceeds benefitting The Bail Project, the song was subsequently performed by Basya Schecter of Pharaoh’s Daughter for a T'ruah benefit, hosted by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now.

Everyone’s Got A Camera (2022), Poe's most recent solo album, was released to widespread critical acclaim. Featuring performances by Blake Morgan, drummers Matt Johnson, Doug Yowell, and Sim Cain, pianists Larry Goldings and Philip Krohnengold, trumpeter John “Scrapper" Sneider, bassist George Farmer, and guest vocalist C.C. White, the album's songs about the collision of analog and digital culture rendered three music videos (for “Post,” “Gun For A Mouth,” and “Analog.”) "A prime example of Poe’s celebrated song-writing style ... biting commentary on the fast paced nature of modern life," wrote Backseat Mafia. “Gun For A Mouth,” speaks clearly to a modern era when everyone is talking, and talking back — loudly,” wrote American Blues Scene. “This American craftsman has a deep history behind him,” wrote Clash Magazine. “An artist who has widely established himself as one of the most talented and accomplished current singer-songwriters,” wrote Press Party. Poe toured the album nationally with collaborator and labelmate Blake Morgan.

Wake (2022) was a commissioned work for the LA Dance Project for a dance choreographed by Jill Johnson, performed at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha in Qatar during the 2022 FIFA World Cup as part of the Qatar Creates festival. Attended by Her Excellency Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, migrant workers, tourists, and many residents of Doha, the performance featured local drummers, singers, the dancers of LADP, and Poe singing its sole lyric: "The world is everyone, everywhere."

Collaborations
Producing and Co-writing

Poe has co-written songs with several artists, and produced recordings for others. Some of his collaborators include David Anders, Jim Boggia, Clare Bowen, Thomas Dybdahl, Larry Goldings, Theo Haber, Lili Haydn, Brendan Hines, Jenifer Jackson, Jonathan Jackson, Grace Kelly, Philip Krohnengold, Reni Laine, Pat MacDonald, Vivek Maddala, Ana Moura, Sam Palladio, Grace Potter & Daryl Hall, Amy Raasch, Maia Sharp, Melissa Sheehan, Duncan Sheik, John "Scrapper" Sneider, Regina Spektor, Curtis Stigers, Morgan Taylor, and Golden Smog guitarist Kraig Jarret Johnson.

With Gail Ann Dorsey and John Cameron Mitchell, Poe is a vocalist in the Blackstar Symphony, an orchestral presentation of David Bowie's final album that features saxophonist and artistic director Donny McCaslin and members of the original Blackstar band playing symphonic arrangements of the album's songs written by Maria Schneider, Jamshied Sharifi, Jules Buckley, Tony Visconti, and Vince Mendoza, conducted by Tim Davies. The piece premiered September 16, 2022 at the Charlotte International Arts Festival with the Charlotte Symphony. Performances are planned with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and at Kennedy Center with the US National Symphony Orchestra.

Songwriter and Broadway composer Duncan Sheik has collaborated with Poe multiple times. They wrote score and songs for the film Harvest and the animated holiday special Little Spirit: Christmas In New York. Poe has also appeared in two musicals for which Sheik wrote the music: Whisper House at the Old Globe Theater and Because Of Winn-Dixie at the Goodspeed Opera House.

Scores and Songs for Film, Television, and Podcasts
The Brooklyn Heist (aka Capers) (2008) Poe’s first score for a feature film.

Dare (2009) An official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, starring Emmy Rossum. Score by David Poe.

Harvest (Music From The Motion Picture) (2010) An EP featuring songs written with colleague Duncan Sheik for the independent film Harvest, starring Robert Loggia, Barbara Barrie, and Arye Gross.

Part Time Fabulous (2011) Film score by David Poe. Awards include Best Narrative Feature at the Berkshire International Film Festival and Awareness Film Festival and Special Jury Commendation at the Durango Film Festival.

Cat Bird Coyote (2015) Features Breathe My Breath, co-written with and performed by Amy Raasch. An official selection of the Portland Film Festival.

The Diary Of A Teenage Girl (2015) Features All The Time In The World, co-written with and performed by Amy Raasch. An official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.

You Mean The World Initiative (2018) Commissioned by Nucleo Life Sciences, a San Francisco Bay Area pharmaceutical development company, Poe's song became the namesake for the You Mean the World Initiative, which pledged to develop combination HIV therapies for pediatric patients in resource-deprived areas of the world.

Turn On The Light (Malala Fund theme) (2018) Campaign theme for The Malala Fund, presented by Citibank. The Malala Fund helps the most vulnerable girls stay in school, advocates for their rights and provides resources to young girls in developing democracies.

A Simple Herstory (2022) Produced in collaboration with New York-based experimental theater group The Tank and scored by David Poe, this radical feminist podcast focused on the 100 women who have run for the US presidency. It received the Bronze Telly Award for immersive audio.