Chris Bathgate - A Cork Tale Wake

Is there room at the inn for one more singer-songwriter? It might be a little tight for space in there already, but Michigan's Chris Bathgate is deserving of admittance. Why? Well, for a start, A Cork Tale Wake never sounds one-paced, a trap so many others fall hopelessly into. Yes, there are plenty of the hushed, intimate intonations so familiar to the genre and most successfully deployed on the stark sounding Cold Fusion. But there are other forces at work here too: Smiles Like A Fist shows the Ann Arbor folkie can rock with the best of them. Ominous sounding electric guitar on A Flash of Light Followed By distorts and resonates, combining with a horn section to create a slow-building storm. Another remarkable point is where a sudden burst of violin lifts Cold Press Rail out of the melancholy-mire it was in danger of being lost to. All in all, Bathgate's efforts make for a surprisingly diverse collection. [Barry Jackson]