Welcome to RedEye’s “Song of the Day,” an ongoing feature where music reporter Josh Terry or another RedEye staff member highlights something they’re listening to. Some days the track will be new, and some days it will be old. No matter what, each offering is something you should check out. Check back every weekday for a new song and subscribe to the Spotify playlist below.
If there was a Hall of Fame for crushing opening lines, Chris Bathgate would be in it for, “17 years before, I should’ve hauled off and kissed her/now I lace my wine with ginger/just let my evenings pass, they pass and they pass.” In just a few words, the Michigan-based singer-songwriter sets up a whole story of regret. As soon as you hear it you feel this melancholic pain in your chest, and for a songwriter who deals with real-life stories of love and loss, this feeling is Bathgate’s currency.
The song is called “Salt Year,” and it’s off the 2011 album of the same name. The whole thing is full of these gorgeous and sad little vignettes, but none are as resonant as the title track. Sprawling over six minutes, the song starts and stops over the constant wail of lovely steel guitar and Bathgate’s whiskey-weathered croon. It’s all the more touching once you realize why the song has its title: “I’ve been choking down a salt year/when sugar’s all I’ve longed for.” While that may sound too much like a dirge, there’s a glimmer of much-needed hope in it’s, “Try again” refrain.
As a firm believer of seasonal playlists, every time the leaves change I find myself coming back to this song. Not because Bathgate and I share the same home state but more because he is totally deft at finding simple ways to encapsulate complex and overpowering emotion. Listen below to see what I mean.
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