Farm to Table to Backalleyway: Bartees Strange's Brilliance

On a lucky day when I bring my headphones to work, I usually start my day with John Mayer’s, “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You).” Where the day goes is, like most things, often left to an algorithm. The fateful event where I first encountered Bartees Strange will go down as a scene which should have been in a Spike Jonze film.

A day in the life of running a non-profit theater occasionally entails breaking old projector bulbs because they are extremely fragile and can explode or leak dangerous materials if not disposed properly. Not wanting to endanger my staff, I sealed up the boxes and went into the secluded back alleyway. Now, this back alleyway is where I have also destroyed a MacBook with hammer, broken a 200 pound flower pot with an intern, and spray-painted over grease stains on a popcorn popper so we wouldn’t have to buy a new one. I wasn’t feeling particularly happy this day. Nothing out of the ordinary – but perfect for a moody artist to come along and make me say, “Damn, this guy is good.”

Botts breaks bulbs

As I was violently tossing these bulbs in the air in concealed boxes to ensure their breaking, Strange’s song, “We Were Only Close For Like Two Weeks” enters. Somehow, I’m not sure how, I just couldn’t fight this feeling anymore. The feeling on loving a song that goes perfect with a melancholicical moment. I proceed to replay the song for the current moment and even well into when I was kicking the boxes to ensure the bulb glass would break. The moment felt right. And Strange had provided me with that unique moment.

After doing some digging, I found out why I ~jive~ with his sound. Strange is an army brat born in England whose father was in the army and mother was an opera singer. For a time he lived, in Greenland, Germany, and various other U.S. states before settling down in a small town in Oklahoma. After deciding to leave his role as director of a non-profit communication company, he devoted his time towards music. Two years in, he is fully succeeding with an endorsement from Stereogum. He’s only gonna go up from here folks.

Strange’s album Farm To Table offers a rare blend of Leon Bridges meets Volcano Choir. The sound is a weaponized armada of alternative rock, jazz, sorrow, and contemplation. What I love about the album is how it seamlessly moves through the aforementioned concepts. Strange opens with a heartfelt banger and closes with mourning call. And, where you’ll get lost is everywhere in between.

My favorite songs off of the album are “Heavy Heart,” “Wretched,” and “Black Gold.” All three offer something different and capture the essence of what this album is: a sad-boi bop with unresolved teenage angst.

So why listen? I don’t know. Maybe you’ll find yourself needing to do a mundane task at work one day. Perhaps you’ll need to break a bulb in your life. And when you do, Strange will be here to help.

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How many bulbs could a Bottsy boy break if a Bottsy boy did break bulbs? Answer below!

- Botts