Dave's True Story
Kelly Flint and David Cantor met in 1989 through a group of songwriter friends. Flint, a teenage Joni Mitchell freak turned twenty-something fan of Keely Smith and Lulu, had been singing backup around the Boston area. Cantor, a one-time student at the Berklee College of Music and an avid songwriter, had stated performing his offbeat jazzy songs at open-mikes at places like the Speakeasy. The duo finally cemented their friendship in 1992. Flint asked Cantor to teach her a song and he brought her a tape of his work, which, after six months, she finally got around to listening to. She decided at once to give a partnership with Cantor a try and their act was born.
"We didn't have a tape or even a name, but I was a fast talker," says Flint, who booked them a gig at Postcrypt, a showcase for singer/songwriters at Columbia University. "The guy who organized it announced us like this: 'I've never heard these guys before and I don't know if they're any good, but here they are.'" The gig turned out to be especially formative because, as Flint was introducing the song "Last Go Round," she said, "This next story is a true story, it's Dave's true story." Somebody yelled out: "That's your name," and the duo was christened Dave's True Story.
Ultimately they decided to record a CD and release it on their own BePop Records label. With gigs from Boston to Monterey, they've managed to sell 10,000 copies of the CD. In June 1995, they won the prestigious Kerrville Music Award, and have been featured performers on radio shows on WNEW, WFMU, and WFUV. Their music has appeared on Hear Music's Christmas CD, the Performing Songwriter's first collection, and on the soundtrack to director Josh Melville's independent feature film, "The Day." Recently, Dave's True Story was the only contemporary act featured on the Pottery Barn's 1997 Christmas Compilation with such legends as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King and Nat King Cole.
7/13/01: Dave's True Story
