Taste Test: Mark Cline Bates tries to spot all the ‘Highway Signs’
The West Virginia native urges the listener to empathize with him on a new stunning song.
Welcome to Taste Test, a song/video review series of SubmitHub-only gemstone
Country music is traditionally littered with perfectly imperfect characters. Often, the lesson boils down to learning to empathized with stories far removed from what we’ve come to know in this life. West Virginia native and scruffy troubadour Mark Cline Bates, who first caught our attention back in 2014 at an astounding Nashville dive-bar performance, celebrates his many flaws, cracks that run deep into his skin. Predominantly piano, bass and percussion, “Highway Signs” creepy crawls through the dirt, as he attempts to impart upon the listener he’s not all that bad when you get to it. “I feel like I’m drenched in gasoline / Wishin’ lightning would come my way,” he sings. His scratchy warble is cathartic, a healing agent you could say, that’s blistered from the open road and weary from the pressure. Perhaps, now that he’s told his tale, we can find true relief from it all.
“Highway Signs” is found on Bates’ new album, King of the Crows, out everywhere now.
Listen below:
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