Duluth’s Blake Shippee has a solo album titled It All Started from a Whisper. The second music video release is directed by Shane Nelson.

Shippee has some heavy background on the song:

When I was 17 my Dad committed suicide. It was during the early summer of ’95 as I was entering my senior year of high school.

As a child my mom and dad had always been divorced, but my dad was always around and loving to us kids. He was a big part of my life growing up. During the last year of his life, he lost everything he owned. He started living out of his car, or with my older Brother in Minneapolis. It all happened so fast. He became severely depressed. I remember reaching out to my high school counselor as I was scared for him and wanted to know if there was something I could do. I remember her saying that I could have him committed, which she had to explain to me what that meant. I wasn’t mentally able to do that, and a month later he had died.

As you can imagine, it was a traumatic experience. I held a tremendous amount of resentment. Now, 27 years later I have just started to reconcile with it all. As I’ve gotten older, I can see how difficult life can be, despite feeling like the luckiest man I know.

The below video is the last track on this album, mostly because I can’t think of another track coming after it. It’s my cathartic release to this experience. It features Shanna and both my girls as they play the family of the suffering husband/father.

Thank you to Eric Pierson for playing the struggling father, as I would not have been capable. A loving thanks to Shanna and my two sweet little pieces of Heaven, Emma Lou and Ava Lee for supporting Dad’s music. Big Bear Hug to my forever bud Shane Nelson for producing this video, he’s amazing. And I would like to give a serious amount of gratitude to the very talented Dave Mehling for producing this track. The song itself might be the best song I’ve ever been lucky enough to write, but Dave helped make it more than I thought it could be.

If you know someone who struggles. Be there for them, love them.

I love you Dad, and I forgive you.

Audio Production
Written by: Blake Shippee
Track Production: Dave Mehling
Engineered: Flip Arkulary
Mastered: Huntley Miller
Guitar/Vocals: Blake Shippee
Keyboard/Effects: Dave Mehling
Pedal Steel: Dave Slattery
Drums: Rick Bruner
Bass: Matt Prois

Video Production
Directed by: Shane Nelson
Produced by: Molly Worre
Post Production: Omni-Fusion.com
Middle Aged Man: Eric Pierson
Wife: Shanna Aldrich
Lasers: Laser Encore
Laser Operator: John Schmidt
Cinematography: Jake Velander
Assistant Camera: Tim Schrader
Gaffer: Tiberius Jay
Grip: Ben Katz
Art Department: Carrie Bush
Hair & Makeup: Ora Jewell-Busche
Production Assistant: Jay Choi
Production Assistant: Hope Wright
Set Intern: Mackenzie D. Hughes
Drone: Nick Karnuth
Location: Pequaywan Lake
Camera: GetSprig.co & Josh Becker
Grip & Electric: Tasty Lighting
Edit & VFX: Shane Rock Nelson