Very real people live at the heart of Matt Whipkey’s new LP, Underwater. Unlike 2013’s historical fiction character study, Penny Park… Whipkey turns his songwriter’s eye onto individuals in his own life. While this exploration of lost love, friendship, death and indulgence is personal in nature, its meditation on emotional struggle is definitively universal. Throughout Underwater, Whipkey realizes we all have a Maryclare, Hunter B., Gary Flanagan, Kathleen and Sam in our own story. They live with us, guide us, challenge us, elate us and let us down. They occupy our daily lives, memories and dreams. Matt Whipkey invites you to not only meet these men and women of his world, but to let them mirror the many who shape yours.
With ten compositions from January through April 2014, Underwater maintains the spirit of a somewhat rapid writing process. This spontaneity easily translates into the recordings, resulting in one of Whipkey’s most organic and cohesive albums. Along with his trusted live band of Scott Zimmerman, Korey Anderson and Robert Carrig, Omaha musician and producer J. Scott Gaeta adds his harmonic signature across the album. The swirling sounds of real organs, ringing guitars and acoustic drums establish a familiar yet revelatory soundscape for Whipkey’s human tale.
Underwater
1:59
Please Don’t Be Long
Gary Flanagan
Not To Worry
Dreams of Kathleen
Let Me Bleed
Calendar Smile
Sam
Not Gonna Change
Released February 24, 2015
