Stream: Scott Bartenhagen ‘Beacons’

Daiana Feuer on June 11th, 2015

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There is not much to boast about the small town of Lathrop, Calif. The town used to lay claim to a popular water park called Manteca Waterslides, which now lays buried under an artificial lake and housing development. Recently Tesla Motors bought a huge chunk of land there but, other than that, Scott Bartenhagen might be the most exciting thing to happen in Lathrop since 1889, when two judges got into a deadly fistfight at the local train station. Bartenhagen has been living in Los Angeles for a while now, slowly churning out jazz-influenced, guitar-laden introspective folk tunes on his own. His record label debut, the EP “Black Dane,” comes out this June 30 via New Professor Music, a local label run by LA Font’s Greg Katz. “Beacons” is the first taste. His voice is buttery and the guitar is delicate but deliberate. It’s a soft but assertive song that ramps up with sea-faring imagery and a bittersweet love affair. Something happens and he’s alone at the end. I’m sure someone out there would be happy to change that. The voice, the little dog, those ears, his and the dog’s, it’s all promising.

||| Stream: “Beacons”