★★★★★
When Chris Bathgate sings "Well, I don't get by on a happy tune" in the first verse of Salt Year's "Borders," the Michigan-based singer-songwriter might as well be summarizing his entire discography. But Bathgate has never plumbed misery for misery's sake, and on this, his first LP in four years, there's a welcome hint of triumph in the personal trials Bathgate and band swaddle in layers of stormy guitar, lonesome fiddle, and clattering percussion...
- www.avclub.com
2011-05-02
★★★★★
It's a rare thing in the music world when a performer so accurately encapsulates the feel of a particular city and music scene on one album, but that's what Chris Bathgate has done with A Cork Tale Wake. Like Ann Arbor mainstay Fred Thomas before him, Bathgate has the ability to cast specific events and places in a universal light. Name checking various important music and personal locales from the city's map on songs like "Last Parade on Ann St...
- www.ink19.com
2009-07-20
★★★★★
"Cold Fusion" by Chris Bathgate
In the saturated parade of indie singer-songwriters, Michigan native Chris Bathgate carries enough bleak, brooding identity to gain attention beyond the Sufjan Stevens crowd. His fourth album, A Cork Tale Wake, proves that he can write a tune, which immediately separates him from many contemporaries...
- www.avclub.com
2009-03-21
★★★★★
With so many singer-songwriters issuing great records left, right, up, and down for the past couple of years, it's easy to get fatigued. But I must implore you to open up your rainy afternoons and heart of tender longings for just one more (at least this week). Ann Arbor, Michigan's Chris Bathgate has the kind of distinctive, intimate voice that fans of acoustic indie-folk rock adore, but it would of course be worth less than a damn if he didn't pen songs worthy of that hushed, confiding tone...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-20
★★★★★
With so many singer-songwriters issuing great records left, right, up, and down for the past couple of years, it's easy to get fatigued. But I must implore you to open up your rainy afternoons and heart of tender longings for just one more (at least this week). Ann Arbor, Michigan's Chris Bathgate has the kind of distinctive, intimate voice that fans of acoustic indie-folk rock adore, but it would of course be worth less than a damn if he didn't pen songs worthy of that hushed, confiding tone...
- www.popmatters.com
2008-11-11