Michigan's sons

Since most of the readers of this humble blog are residents of Michigan,* I felt obliged to write a short note on two musical entities that are languishing in obscurity here in our great state.

The first is Chris Bathgate. Recently the Free Press declared that he was the "most important songwriter in Michigan." They were right. I would even be willing to go further and say that he is one of the most important songwriters in the nation. Unfortunately there is a dearth of information on him to be found on the internet. He has a MySpace page, which is where I would recommend you begin. Once there you can listen to four of his songs. Here is a site where you can download several songs of his - among those available I would recommend "Cold Fusion (Snakes)." Finally, there is another site devoted to his album "A Cork Tale Wake."

The second is a group, Frontier Ruckus. I will unapologetically say that they are the most important band from our state in recent memory. (Yes, that includes the White Stripes). To call their music "folk music" would be an insult. At times it is spare - guitar, banjo, vocals - but the lyrical content and the sheer force of the songs break over you in a way that should indicate that this is not your average group of whiny college kids trying to get in touch with their inner Pete Seegers. The only site you need to go to is theirs. You can download many of their demos, as well as read the lyrics to their songs. I would specifically recommend that you download "Adirondack Amish Holler," "Dark Autumn Hour," "Foggy Lilac Windows," "The Great Lake-Town," and "The Blood."

That's all for now. Coming up in the future I will have the great privilege of reviewing the collected poems of James Emanuel, so please look for that.


* This is a thoroughly baseless assumption, but I refuse to add Sitemeter for some reason.