Bartees Strange is releasing his sophomore album Farm to Table on June 17. Today, he's shared a new single called "Hold the Line"—following "Heavy Heart" and "Cosigns"—which was written in May 2020 after George Floyd was murdered by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. “I remember watching George Floyd’s daughter talk about the death of her father and thinking wow—what a sad introduction to Black American life for this young person," Strange said. "It was painful to watch her grow up in that moment, like all Black kids eventually do."
"See that babe, see that child / Can’t imagine what’s flying through her young mind now," he sings over a woozy guitar that reaches pitches nearing a weary wail. "Hold the Line" captures the ripple effect of a lost life. Family and friends mourn for the person they loved, while others mourn alongside having experienced the same or merely knowing that this is a grossly normalized fate in our country.
"'Hold the Line' was written over the course of three days during that first pandemic summer," Strange added. "Through this song I was trying to make sense of what was happening in the US, my neighborhood, and my community at that moment. During the marches people were trying to stop the bleeding, locked arm in arm, doing everything they could to hold the line.”
Listen to "Hold the Line" below, and pre-order Farm to Table here.
