Katharine Whalen

Katharine Whalen, a vocalist who also handles banjo and ukulele, first gained notice for her dusky singing style that echoes Billie Holiday. She established herself both on her own and as an original member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the ensemble devoted to reviving 1920s jazz and swing. The group captured the cultural moment during the 1990s, landing on the Billboard 200 and delivering the popular track “Hot.” Concurrently she began issuing solo material, first focusing on standards through Katharine Whalen’s Jazz Squad before releasing the pop-oriented albums Dirty Little Secret in 2006 and Madly Love in 2011. Additional sessions paired her with Andrew Bird and Stephin Merritt, and she has kept the Jazz Squad active, most recently with the 2021 collection To Hide a Heart That’s Blue and the 2024 Chet Baker-inspired Songs Chet Sang.

Born in Greenville, North Carolina, Whalen helped launch the Chapel Hill-based Squirrel Nut Zippers in 1993 alongside her then-husband, guitarist and singer James “Jimbo” Mathus, vocalist Tom Maxwell, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Ken Mosher, bassist Don Raleigh, and drummer Chris Phillips. The band achieved both sales and acclaim, issuing five albums; two of them, 1996’s Hot and 1998’s Perennial Favorites, reached the upper reaches of the Billboard 200. After Bedlam Ballroom appeared in 2000 the group disbanded, though it staged a short-lived reunion tour in 2007 without Maxwell. Whalen and Mathus later divorced; he subsequently directed a revised version of the band while she remained in North Carolina to concentrate on independent recordings and side projects.

Her first solo outing arrived in 1999 as Katharine Whalen’s Jazz Squad, a set devoted to classic American popular standards. Teaming with former Camus member David Sale, she issued Dirty Little Secret in 2006, an album of self-penned material shaped by 1960s lounge, exotica, and spy-film scores. Madly Love followed in 2011, shifting toward an indie-pop aesthetic. Beyond her own releases, Whalen has appeared on recordings by Andrew Bird, Stephin Merritt, Swedish Wood Patrol, Certain Seas, and additional artists. In 2021 the Jazz Squad reconvened for the standards album To Hide a Heart That’s Blue, and the same lineup returned in 2024 with Let’s Get Lost: Songs Chet Sang, a tribute to the celebrated jazz trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker.