Gavin DeGraw

Gavin DeGraw came to music through the soul of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, and it shows in a tenor voice that is usually described as having a hint of grit. Raised in South Fallsburg in New York's Catskills, he was writing his own songs by his teens. Within months of reaching Manhattan in 1998, he was performing at a Sunday open-mic night on the Upper West Side.

Chariot (2003) was his breakthrough, and its single I Don't Want to Be became the theme for One Tree Hill. The self-titled follow-up in 2008 was preceded by the top 40 hit In Love with a Girl, while Free in 2009 saw sales slip and marked his final album with J Records. Sweeter (2011) produced the hit Not Over You. Later came Make a Move (2013) and Something Worth Saving (2016), then Face the River in 2022, which arrived with a documentary about his parents' deaths. His duet with Colbie Caillat, We Both Know, earned a Grammy nomination.