“It’s Like Fire” – Lady Bartee

“It’s Like Fire”
Lady Bartee
BRG Records (2018)
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/ladybartee

By Bob Marovich

Lady Bartee sounds a little like Janelle Monae or the late Amy Winehouse on the amalgam of sonic intensity that is her latest single, “It’s Like Fire.”

Raised Pentecostal, Bartee knows a thing or two about Holy Ghost fire, and she expresses it with barely restrained passion on this haunting and atmospheric minor-keyed song. Less a melody than a repeated riff that ebbs and flows in intensity, “It’s Like Fire” marches fearlessly forward and ends with sky-raking crackles of thunder that presuppose the lightning.

A native of Poughkeepsie, New York, Chalese Bartee, aka Lady Bartee, was named Best Female Vocalist at the 2018 McDonald’s Gospel Fest. The scars of personal loss that occurred at various times in her thirty years on earth can be heard in her laser-focused reading of the lyric.  Chilling.