In an era when the authentic often plays second fiddle to trends, Rip Gerber is a rare artist who is willing, quite literally, to sit with sorrow and invite us to sit with it, too. His most recent single, "Tell Me Tell Me," is not a song so much as the unvarnished embalmment of an elegy cradled in melody, a heart-to-heart plea to the void left behind by his father's sudden death amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new single is unleashed by the rapidly ascending indie artist whose emotive storytelling brand has already attracted international attention. "Tell Me Tell Me" doesn't hold back. The track is Gerber trying to negotiate the uncharted territory of grief with open eyes and an open heart. It is a longing, deeply personal ballad, where every lyric reads like the conversation that never did take place and every note seems to carry the weight of a farewell that was never said.
The production is intimate, allowing the emotion to breathe. There is no overbuffed Polish, just the raw, even hushed-toned delivery that makes the listener feel he's not only hearing this guy's story, he's living it alongside. And that is what Gerber does so well. He welcomes you inside. No mask, no pretense.
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