Biography
Chris Bathgate first drew notice as a singer and songwriter whose stark, emotionally raw material—echoing the atmospheres cultivated by Will Oldham and Damien Jurado—built a devoted regional audience across Southeast Michigan before attracting listeners worldwide. After surfacing in the early 2000s with a foundation in bluegrass and folk, he steadily expanded his instrumental palette and aligned his writing more closely with alternative singer/songwriter peers, beginning with the 2007 album A Cork Tale Wake. Comparisons to Wilco surfaced with the arrival of Salt Year in 2011, while The Significance of Peaches, issued in 2022, shifted toward introspection by replacing guitar with parlor organ and drone yet stayed rooted in the rural themes that had defined his work throughout his career.
Raised in Pecatonica, Illinois, Bathgate took up music at age 16, spending a few years in a heavy metal group before issuing the solo debut Dead Eyed Stranger in 2001. After moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to enroll at the University of Michigan, he followed with Create and Consume the next year. Around the same time he joined Michael Beauchamp and Karl Sturk in the old-time-inflected folk trio the Ambitious Brothers, which issued Ambitious Brothers I and Ambitious Brothers II before disbanding in 2005 upon Sturk’s relocation to New York.
Bathgate returned to solo work that year with Silence Is for Suckers and also participated in the short-lived Descent of the Holy Ghost Church alongside Beauchamp and the local indie musicians Jansen Swy, Matt Jones, Louis Dickinson, and Carol Gray; the ensemble dissolved in 2006. Before the close of that calendar year he self-released the albums The Single Road I Long For and Throatsleep plus the EP A Detailed Account of Three Dreams. Quite Scientific Records, based in Ann Arbor, signed him shortly afterward, resulting in the mid-2007 release of A Cork Tale Wake. Following consistent BBC Radio 2 airplay for the track “Serpentine,” One Little Indian handled the album’s United Kingdom distribution.
International touring and festival appearances in the U.K. and Europe increased steadily, punctuated by the 2008 EP Wait, Skeleton and a series of singles that preceded Salt Year in 2011. Chris Koltay and Jim Roll produced the record, which also featured contributions from members of the Macpodz and Frontier Ruckus. Bathgate declared a sabbatical from the music industry in mid-2012 and did not resume live performances until 2014. Quite Scientific issued his first new recording in five years, the EP Old Factory, in February 2016. Two months later came the full-length Dizzy Seas, co-produced by Bathgate and Koltay and containing “Northern Country Trail,” a composition drawn from the songwriter’s hiking experiences in Northern Michigan; he also conceived and directed the accompanying video.
Following a temporary move to California and the start of a family, Bathgate reemerged in 2022 with The Significance of Peaches. The album replaced guitars with parlor organ, piano, and strings for a meditative collection recorded with producers that included Jamie Hill of the Onlys and Daniel Zott of JR JR. ~ Mark Deming & Marcy Donelson
Raised in Pecatonica, Illinois, Bathgate took up music at age 16, spending a few years in a heavy metal group before issuing the solo debut Dead Eyed Stranger in 2001. After moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to enroll at the University of Michigan, he followed with Create and Consume the next year. Around the same time he joined Michael Beauchamp and Karl Sturk in the old-time-inflected folk trio the Ambitious Brothers, which issued Ambitious Brothers I and Ambitious Brothers II before disbanding in 2005 upon Sturk’s relocation to New York.
Bathgate returned to solo work that year with Silence Is for Suckers and also participated in the short-lived Descent of the Holy Ghost Church alongside Beauchamp and the local indie musicians Jansen Swy, Matt Jones, Louis Dickinson, and Carol Gray; the ensemble dissolved in 2006. Before the close of that calendar year he self-released the albums The Single Road I Long For and Throatsleep plus the EP A Detailed Account of Three Dreams. Quite Scientific Records, based in Ann Arbor, signed him shortly afterward, resulting in the mid-2007 release of A Cork Tale Wake. Following consistent BBC Radio 2 airplay for the track “Serpentine,” One Little Indian handled the album’s United Kingdom distribution.
International touring and festival appearances in the U.K. and Europe increased steadily, punctuated by the 2008 EP Wait, Skeleton and a series of singles that preceded Salt Year in 2011. Chris Koltay and Jim Roll produced the record, which also featured contributions from members of the Macpodz and Frontier Ruckus. Bathgate declared a sabbatical from the music industry in mid-2012 and did not resume live performances until 2014. Quite Scientific issued his first new recording in five years, the EP Old Factory, in February 2016. Two months later came the full-length Dizzy Seas, co-produced by Bathgate and Koltay and containing “Northern Country Trail,” a composition drawn from the songwriter’s hiking experiences in Northern Michigan; he also conceived and directed the accompanying video.
Following a temporary move to California and the start of a family, Bathgate reemerged in 2022 with The Significance of Peaches. The album replaced guitars with parlor organ, piano, and strings for a meditative collection recorded with producers that included Jamie Hill of the Onlys and Daniel Zott of JR JR. ~ Mark Deming & Marcy Donelson
Albums
The Significance of Peaches
2022
Dizzy Seas
2017
Old Factory
2016
Salt Year
2011
The Asheville Squints
2008
Wait, Skeleton.
2008
A Cork Tale Wake
2007
Throatsleep
2006
Silence Is For Suckers
2005
Singles
