Matt White's New Album Gets Lots of 'Love and Affection'

The singer/songwriter's hit from ABC's The Bachelorette off his "raw" new record Shirley

From the LifeMInute team

Classically trained opera singer turned guitar playing hit maker...Matt White's music has been popping up the past few years on the top of Billboard's New Artist charts, commercials and even on a top reality show. Now the songwriter on Rolling Stone magazine's "10 Artists to Watch" list has a brand new album already creating some buzz.

For White music runs in the family. "I got in the music business because my whole family is very musical," says White, "my parents would take me to the Stones...Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Billy Joel concerts."

However, the New Jersey native didn't start honing his own rocker skills till his late high school days and then college years when he started playing and performing around New York City.

"The Love and Affection" singer got a lot of attention when the song was featured on ABC's The Bachelorette. "It was really significant, the exposure and what that did for the song," says White of serenading the show's couple on an episode.

You can find the single on his latest album Shirley named after his grandmother (aww!)

"My grandmother was the first female orchestra leader in the country's history," says the singer, "I think that when you try to find an album title it becomes this like contrived thing so I was like lets just name it Shirley."

Besides keeping the album simple, White also kept the record "raw" and "very piano driven."

"I think a lot of those songs just came from listening to music and being inspired about what I saw," says the songwriter of his album he also labels "a little retro."

"Give Me What you Got" is the first single off Shirley. "Hopefully by January you will hear it all over the airwaves," says White.

If you can't wait till then, check out Facebook.com/mattwhite.

"I'm very active on that," says White of Facebook, "People write to me all the time and I always write back."

You can also check him out at mattwhitemusic.com/.