Last year, Michigan singer-songwriter Chris Bathgate put out an EP titled Old Factory, his first release after a five-year gap in which he'd toured, taken time off and essentially dropped out of the music business. On May 19, he'll release Dizzy Seas, his first full-length album since 2011 — and today marks the unveiling of its first single, a lovely, brooding six-minute ballad called "Northern Country Trail."
Bathgate's ornate songs unfold gracefully and deliberately, revealing rich layers over time, and his new work is no different. Inspired by a hike on the North Country Trail in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, "Northern Country Trail" rolls by in a wash of dreamy imagery, with a video to match. Bathgate directed the video while in the process of recording Dizzy Seas.
"While the song is based on considering romantic tensions while hiking in the woods, there's another side to the song — one that is about reality, perception and memory," Bathgate writes via email. "It's a song about your mind and body doing different things at once. The recording process feels like that to me: You're listening to a portion of music you've recorded, imagining the portions you haven't, performing music and listening to yourself perform that music, while considering what inspired it."
Dizzy Seas Tracklist
1. Water
2. O(h)m
3. Come To The Sea
4. Beg
5. Hide
6. Northern Country Trail
7. Dizzy Seas
8. Low Hey
9. Tintype Crisis
10. Nicosia
Dizzy Seas comes out May 19 via Quite Scientific.
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