South Fallsburg, NY · pop-rock · soul-pop

Gavin DeGraw

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'I Don't Want to Be' and a piano-soul catalog built for singing along — 2000s radio warmth delivered by a genuine road-tested voice.

Gavin DeGraw grew up in South Fallsburg, in New York's Catskills, where his mother worked as a detox nurse and his father as a corrections officer, details he later folded into "I Don't Want to Be." He began singing and playing piano at eight, and as a teenager found a turning point in Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. He played locally with his brother Joey in a group called The People's Band.

He attended Ithaca College on a music scholarship but left after one semester, then moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music for two semesters. In 1998 he relocated to Manhattan, where an open-mic night at the club Wilson's led to a manager, Debbie Wilson, and eventually a deal with Clive Davis's J Records.

His debut album, Chariot, arrived in 2003, and its single "I Don't Want to Be" became widely known as the theme to the television series One Tree Hill. A self-titled second album followed in 2008, led by the single "In Love with a Girl," while his third album, Free, released in 2009, marked a commercial decline and his last record for J Records.

DeGraw's fourth album, Sweeter, arrived in 2011 with "Not Over You," "Soldier" and "Sweeter"; "Best I Ever Had" followed as a later single. He then released Make a Move in 2013 and Something Worth Saving in 2016. His 2022 album, Face the River, came with a documentary about making the record while coping with his parents' deaths. A duet with Colbie Caillat, "We Both Know," earned a Grammy nomination.

His writing sits between pop-rock and blue-eyed soul, built on piano and guitar arrangements, plainly constructed choruses and a rasping, gospel-tinged voice that carries most of the weight. DeGraw has spent much of his career touring, and his brother Joey DeGraw is also a musician.

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