Katelyn Tarver – Tell Me How You Really Feel
Acclaimed singer-songwriter and actress Katelyn Tarver releases her third studio album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, today via Nettwerk.
A bold, vulnerable, and deeply self-aware body of work, the 13-track LP marks a defining new chapter for the Los Angeles-based artist, one rooted in honesty, reinvention, and radical self-trust.
On Tell Me How You Really Feel, Tarver documents moments of profound change with unflinching clarity. The album captures what it sounds like to leave behind a decade-long marriage, step into the unknown, and rebuild your identity in real time. The songs are so intimate that they feel like overhearing a phone call between exes or witnessing a post-breakup encounter unfold across the table.
“The album is a rebirth,” Tarver says. “I’m stepping into a new season as an artist and a woman. I tried to capture what it was like leaving my marriage, getting divorced, and jumping off a cliff into the unknown. I felt free and optimistic for the first time in a long time, but I couldn’t help but think, ‘Am I going to regret this?’ I had this desire to be raw and share more of my personal journey than I ever had before.”
Katelyn on Tell Me How You Really Feel:
“I never thought I’d get divorced. I never thought I’d write an album about it. I never thought I’d like to eat mushrooms but here we are! Life continues to surprise me, but what has been a constant for as long as I can remember, is a deep hunger for the truth. The older I get, the more allergic I get to any kind of falsity. Which sounds great, until it requires something of you. This album documents the year after I left my almost ten year marriage. The heartbreak, the freedom, the sheer terror of being on my own for the first time…It’s my most personal work yet, and the process of making it healed me over and over again”
Written and recorded throughout 2024 with longtime collaborators Grammy-nominated producer Mikey Reaves (Luke Combs, Jelly Roll) in Nashville and Chad Copelin (Sasha Alex Sloan, Sufjan Stevens) in Oklahoma, the album serves as both a creative breakthrough and an emotional processing tool following the end of Tarver’s ten-year marriage.
Across its tracklist, she transforms heartbreak into clarity, navigating the delicate tension between freedom and fear as she learns to trust herself again.
Inspiration came from an unexpected place: stand-up comedy. Watching specials like Ali Wong’s Single Lady, Tarver was struck by the parallels between stand-up and confessional songwriting, both rooted in radical honesty and truth-telling. “I realized stand-up and songwriting have a lot in common,” she says. “It’s about saying the thing people are afraid to say out loud. I thought, I don’t know if I’ll ever make another album like this again, so I might as well go for it. The title is a direct statement — tell me the truth. Tell me how you feel. Tell me everything.”
Featuring previously released singles “The Price,” “$82 at Erewhon,” “Strange Weather,” “Don’t Eat Pray Love,” and “#1,” the album transforms heartbreak into clarity, tracing a nonlinear journey of healing, grief, and growth.
“I hope this album can be a companion to you if you’re trying to forge your own path,” Tarver says. “I want you to get a better sense of me, but I also want to empower you to share your story, live your truth, and be vulnerable. That’s what connects us all.”
TOUR DATES:
April 30 — Chicago, IL — Schubas
May 8 — Toronto, ON — Garrison
May 12 — New York, NY — Baby’s All Right
May 13 — Washington, DC — Songbyrd
May 16 — Nashville, TN — Cannery Hall
May 17 — Atlanta, GA — Aisle 5
May 20 — San Francisco, CA — Café du Nord
May 24 — Los Angeles, CA — Echoplex
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