Parachute – The Way it Was: 15 Year Anniversary

There's always been a subtle power to the music of Parachute, the Charlottesville-bred pop/rock band behind such hits as the platinum-selling, chart-topping "She Is Love." With their open-hearted songwriting and indelible melodies, the band revealed a rare ability to pack deep layers of feeling inside the most immediately catchy pop track. That dynamic was never more apparent than on their sophomore album The Way It Was, a batch of songs that explored everything from love and loss to hope and regret, handling each with extraordinary attention to life's most nuanced moments and intricate details.

That intimacy echoes the earliest days of the band, which formed when Will Anderson, Johnny Stubblefield, and Kit French were still in high school. After spending nearly every afternoon in Anderson's basement, dreaming up songs showing an intense affinity for classic pop and heartfelt rock and tuneful blue-eyed soul, the band began landing gigs locally and soon gained a following at the nearby University of Virginia. As their inaugural release under the name Parachute, 2009's Losing Sleep debuted at #2 on the Billboard Digital Albums chart and climbed to #40 on the Billboard 200. Over the next few years, along with releasing The Way It Was and Overnight (which shot to the #3 spot on iTunes), Parachute toured with such artists as Kelly Clarkson, Gavin DeGraw, and Mat Kearney, and completed three sold-out headlining tours.

Now, in celebration of the 15^th anniversary of The Way It Was, Parachute will be releasing the album on vinyl for the first time and performing 4 shows featuring the album and their other biggest hits.