Fair Shake Music is an independent record label dedicating to releasing and promoting the music of Bart King.
As an infant, Bart would match pitches his mother hummed to him long before learning to talk. He began studying piano at age four, and penned his first masculine rhymes a few years later (something about a cat, a bat and a flat rat). He grew up performing in church choirs, where his deep voice forced him to sing an octave below the other children, and he won his first songwriting competition in the fourth grade. Still in his teens, he studied jazz piano with former Berklee School of Music Instructor, Ted Howe.
Bart took up guitar after high school when he moved away from home (and the family piano). He recorded his first demo in Atlanta later that year before moving to Athens. While a student in the University of Georgia’s journalism program he studied abroad in Russia, and was introduced to the work of folksinger and poet, Bulat Okujava. He also gave what would be an unforgettable performance (for him) of Elton John’s Your Song to an audience of a hundred excited, teenage Russian girls.
After graduation Bart moved to New York City where he studied poetry at Columbia University. He received an MFA in Creative Writing and had limited publishing success including a long piece in The Paris Review. However, upon moving to Maine in 2001, he quickly found that he wanted to write songs rather than poems.
He began revisiting his jazz studies and exploring a new-found interest in the blues, while performing as a soloist in the Portland area on piano and guitar. Concurrently, he hosted a popular open-mic night in Brunswick, Maine where he worked to polish original material.
Bart recorded his first EP, Start Something, during the spring of 2004 at Studio Dual, just outside Portland, with the help of Portland musicians, John Buckley and Gerhard Graml. He returned to Athens with his wife, Lisa, in June 2004, and is thrilled to be back among people who take such an active interest in local music.
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* incidates required field.
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info@(this web site)
706-340-3140
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