{{short description|American singer-songwriter (born 1948)}} {{Advertisement|date=October 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Geoff Bartley | image = GeoffBartley20080516.jpg | caption = Bartley performing in 2008 | image_size = | background = solo_singer | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1948}} | origin = Boston | instrument = Guitar, harmonica | genre = Folk, blues, roots | occupation = Singer-songwriter | years_active = 1969–present | label = Waterbug, Swallowtail, Magic Crow | website = {{URL|http://www.geoffbartley.com}} }}
'''Geoff Bartley''' (born 1948)<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Morse |first=Katrina |year=2012 |title=Geoff Bartley |url=https://cambridgehistory.org/music/Bartley/Geoff_Bartleytext.html |access-date=February 10, 2018 |website=cambridgehistory.org |series=Music in Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge Historical Society |archive-date=August 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817151217/http://cambridgehistory.org/music/Bartley/Geoff_Bartleytext.html |url-status=live }}</ref> is an American acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter based in Boston, Massachusetts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Symkus |first=Ed |title=Geoff Bartley |language=en-US |work=The Music Museum of New England |url=http://mmone.org/geoff-bartley/ |access-date=February 10, 2018 |archive-date=February 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210121045/http://mmone.org/geoff-bartley/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite book|title=Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground|last=Alarik|first=Scott|publisher=Black Wolf Press|year=2003|isbn=0-9720270-1-7|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deepcommunity00scot/page/214 214–216]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deepcommunity00scot/page/214}}</ref> Since 1994, Bartley has played guitar regularly alongside Tom Paxton.
== Early life and influences == Geoff Bartley was born in New York City in 1948 and grew up on the eastern shore of Maryland.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=The New Folk Music|last=Harris|first=Craig|publisher=White Cliffs Media Company|year=1991|isbn=0-941677-25-7|location=Crown Point, Indiana|pages=90–91}}</ref> His mother played piano and his father, a doctor, played clarinet. He grew up surrounded by classical music.<ref name=":2" /> In fourth grade, Bartley began to study clarinet, and in 1963 began playing the acoustic guitar.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> In 1967, he moved to Boston to attend Boston University. He has also lived in Nevada, Colorado, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.<ref name=":6" />
Among his influences, Bartley cites original pre-war acoustic blues players and singers such as Lightnin’ Hopkins, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, and Blind Willie McTell, as well as later musicians, such as Bob Dylan, Tom Rush, Bonnie Raitt, and Dave Van Ronk.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=https://bluegrasstoday.com/geoff-bartley-and-bostons-golden-age-of-bluegrass/|title=Geoff Bartley and Boston's Golden Age of Bluegrass|last=Holbrow|first=Gwendolyn|date=June 2, 2016|work=Bluegrass Today|access-date=February 10, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=February 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210180123/https://bluegrasstoday.com/geoff-bartley-and-bostons-golden-age-of-bluegrass/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":6" />
== Career == Bartley performed his first professional gig in 1970 at a Boston coffeehouse.<ref name=":0" /> By 1973, he was able to support himself financially playing in bars and coffee houses, and he toured nationally for the next fifteen years.<ref name=":2" /> During the 1980s, Bartley participated in the Fast Folk Music Cooperative.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.folklib.net/ff/ff_coop.shtml|title=Fast Folk and Coop Database|last=Alexander|first=Steven|year=2002|website=www.folklib.net|language=en|access-date=February 19, 2018|archive-date=February 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220151929/http://www.folklib.net/ff/ff_coop.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> Since 1994, he has regularly accompanied folk musician Tom Paxton.<ref name=":7" /> Bartley was involved in the creation of the 2004 Tom Paxton signature model Martin guitar.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/an-interview-with-new-england-storyteller-geoff-bartley-a|title=Geoff Bartley: The Theory of Bluesy|last=Limnios|first=Michael|date=December 7, 2013|website=Blues.Gr|language=en|access-date=February 10, 2018|archive-date=February 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210235110/http://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/an-interview-with-new-england-storyteller-geoff-bartley-a|url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Can Tab Lounge and the bluegrass connection === In 1991, Bartley began hosting a folk singer-songwriter open mic at the Can Tab Lounge in Cambridge on Monday evenings. The success of the folk open mic led the venue asked him in 1993 to host Tuesday evenings as well, and he decided to make that a bluegrass event. Bluegrass Tuesdays eventually became what musician Matt Glaser called "the epicenter of bluegrass in Boston." In 2016, the Boston Bluegrass Union recognized Bartley's contributions to bluegrass with its Industry Heritage Award.<ref name=":3" />
=== Songwriting === Bartley's songs have been recorded by numerous artists and licensed for film and television.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2008/11/mary-mccaslin-geoff-bartley.html|title=Mary McCaslin & Geoff Bartley|last=Boudreau|first=Jeff|date=November 2, 2008|website=notloB Music|access-date=February 13, 2018|archive-date=February 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180214073343/http://notlobmusic.blogspot.com/2008/11/mary-mccaslin-geoff-bartley.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/geoff-bartley-mn0000167149/credits|title=Geoff Bartley Credits|website=AllMusic|access-date=February 13, 2018|archive-date=February 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180214014721/https://www.allmusic.com/artist/geoff-bartley-mn0000167149/credits|url-status=live}}</ref> His song "Sunny Side of Town" won the 2015 Podunk Bluegrass Festival Songwriters Competition.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://podunkbluegrass.com/wp-content/uploads/Songwriters-Competition-Finalists-Announced-1.pdf|title=Podunk Bluegrass Festival Songwriters Competition Finalists|date=July 5, 2016|work=Podunk Bluegrass Festival Press Release|access-date=February 13, 2018|archive-date=March 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307192401/http://podunkbluegrass.com/wp-content/uploads/Songwriters-Competition-Finalists-Announced-1.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> His recordings ''Put the Big Stone Down'' (2009) and ''Mercy for the Dispossessed'' (2011) both reached number one on the international Folk DJ Radio chart.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news|url=http://amazingthings.org/event/geoff-bartley-with-frank-sugrue/|title=Geoff Bartley with Frank Sugrue|work=Amazing Things|access-date=February 13, 2018|language=en-US|archive-date=February 14, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180214073410/http://amazingthings.org/event/geoff-bartley-with-frank-sugrue/|url-status=live}}</ref> Through his open mics, he has been a mentor to many aspiring songwriters.<ref name=":7" /> The folk press has called him a world-class guitarist, a brilliant songwriter, and the prophet and spiritual godfather of the Boston folk scene.<ref name=":5" />
=== Awards and recognition === The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts declared February 13, 2004 Geoff Bartley Day.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=Deborah Silverstein & Geoff Bartley |language=en-US |work=Amazing Things |url=http://amazingthings.org/event/deborah-silverstein-geoff-bartley/ |access-date=February 10, 2018 |archive-date=February 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210180152/http://amazingthings.org/event/deborah-silverstein-geoff-bartley/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2009, he was awarded the Jerry Christen Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award by the Boston Area Coffeehouse Association. In 2015, Bartley was the winner of the Podunk songwriting contest.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> He has won the New Hampshire Acoustic Guitar Contest twice, and won a guitar each year from 1984 to 1987 by four-second-place wins at the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championships in Winfield, Kansas.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Winfield Winners |url=https://wvfest.com/winners |access-date=February 11, 2018 |website=Walnut Valley Festival |language=en |archive-date=October 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181027223429/http://wvfest.com/winners |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":6" />
== Discography == * ''Blues Beneath the Surface'' (1984) * ''Interstates'' (1986) * ''I Am the Heart'' (1989) * ''One Kind Word'' (1998) * ''Hear That Wind Howl'' (1999)<ref>{{AllMusic |class=album |id=hear-that-wind-howl-mw0000251441 |label=Geoff Bartley: Hear That Wind Howl |first=Cub |last=Koda |accessdate=August 21, 2015 }}</ref> * ''Bones and Breath'' (with Timothy Mason) (2003) * ''Interstates'' (2005) * ''Blackbirds in the Pie'' (2008) * ''Put The Big Stone Down'' (2010) * ''Mercy for the Dispossessed'' (2011) * ''Uncle Wiggly's Bicycle Ride'' (2015) * ''Particles of Light'' (September 2016) * ''The Ballad of Billy Bridger'' (2023)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.geoffbartley.com/ Official Website] * [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/geoff-bartley-mn0000167149 AllMusic – Geoff Bartley] * [https://www.youtube.com/user/GeoffBartleyMusic Geoff Bartley Music video channel]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartley, Geoff}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:American folk guitarists Category:American male guitarists Category:American folk musicians Category:Fast Folk artists Category:American male singer-songwriters Category:American blues singers Category:American blues guitarists Category:Waterbug Records artists Category:Boston University alumni Category:Singers from Boston Category:American bluegrass guitarists