Witty troubadour Jeremy Ivey has shared a lyric video for the new track ‘Keep Me High’ today featuring a collage he created; a song about letting one woman go for another that treats you better, listen and watch below.
This Friday Ivey will release ‘Invisible Pictures’, his third album in just as many years but also his most personal. Though the songs are rooted in a 21st century swirl of chaos and uncertainty, the record is, at its core, an undeniably feel-good collection, one that refuses to surrender to the existential ache it so artfully captures. Instead, Ivey embraces the sheer, unmitigated joy of creative freedom and sonic exploration here, drawing on everything from flamenco and classical music to vintage indie rock and British Invasion tunes to craft a passionate, transcendent album reminiscent of John Lennon or Elliott Smith. “When you sing a melody in your head, you can either put three chords around it or nine,” says Ivey, who plays one of Smith’s hollow-body guitars on the record. “This time, I aimed for nine.”
Featured as their spotlight artist this month, Ivey recently spoke to No Depression about his unique upbringing and road to creating music and art in general. Read more HERE.
When it came time to record ‘Invisible Pictures’ Ivey continued to stretch himself, tapping celebrated producer Andrija Tokic and tasking him with assembling a band of players he’d never worked with before. While some of the musicians ran in similar circles to Ivey around Nashville, others, like jazz violinist Billy Contreras were brand new to him, and the infusion of fresh, diverse collaborators only served to elevate the spirit of freedom and discovery already at play in the writing.
“I started listening to a lot of Paco de Lucía and playing more nylon string guitar at home,” Ivey recalls. “I started using more passing tones in my writing, too, and then I’d make up chords to go along with those melodies, even if I didn’t know what it was that I was playing.”
The resulting artistic invigoration is easy to hear on ‘Invisible Pictures’, which balances lush orchestration and bold harmonic motion with a plainspoken delivery full of honest self-reflection and candid explorations of depression, identity, and belonging.
“I try to put a little bit of hope into everything I do,” Ivey reflects. “No matter how heavy, no matter how dark things may get, there’s always a little bit of light shining through.”
Pre-Order ‘Invisible Pictures’
1. Orphan Child
2. Trial By Fire
3. Keep Me High
4. Downhill (Upside Down Optimist)
5. Grey Machine
6. Phantom Limb
7. Empty Game
8. Invisible Pictures
9. Black Mood
10. Silence And Sorrow
