Gavin DeGraw headlines first night of Delta Fair & Music Fest

Not a 'one tree hill' pony, DeGraw mines more natural voice in new CD

By By Mark Jordan
Special to The Commercial Appeal

Friday, August 29, 2008

In 2003, producers chose "I Don't Want To Be," by a then unknown singer-songwriter from upstate New York named Gavin DeGraw, as the theme music to the WB (now the CW) teen drama "One Tree Hill."

The song launched DeGraw's career like a meteor. It went No. 1 and the accompanying debut album, Chariot, topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart. But after more than five years (season six of "One Tree Hill" debuts Sunday) and with the song, thanks to syndication, playing almost daily, doesn't the 31-year-old tire of hearing it?

"No, I love that song still," says DeGraw, who performed Friday at the first night of the Delta Fair & Music Festival. "It's my anthem. That song made my career."

A soulful rocker dominated by DeGraw's rolling piano vamp, "I Don't Want Be" is still a staple of DeGraw's live shows. And DeGraw is still a little nonplussed that audiences don't quite digest the track's themes of individuality and nonconformity.

"It's funny that that song has been dubbed 'The One Tree Hill Song' by fans, because it's so the opposite of anything industry or commercial," he says. "I wrote that song in reaction to the identity crisis of the American teenager."

DeGraw himself suffered a bit of an identity crisis after the success of Chariot and a companion acoustic release, Chariot -- Stripped. Fearful of being lumped into the field of sensitive singer-songwriters that includes his one-time Berklee College of Music classmate John Mayer, he intentionally set out to roughen up his sound on his just-released eponymous follow-up. As opposed to Chariot's slick production, the new record is full of heavy guitars and slamming drums while remaining a pop record at heart.

"I think this type of recording is timely because a lot of songwriters are stuck with a gentler delivery than maybe their songwriting necessarily deserves," DeGraw says. "The industry would certainly like to make every boy with a guitar or behind a piano look like he weighs 115 pounds and cries when somebody pinches him. But I didn't want to make an album like that."

The first single, the Top 10 hit "In Love With a Girl," has a radio-friendly chorus that will remind some people of "I Don't Want To Be," while tracks like "Medicate the Kids" continue the songwriter's exploration of youth issues. Elsewhere, DeGraw mines even darker subject matter on the new single, "Cheated On Me."

Drawing on a disparate array of influences -- from classic rock to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, to Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, and a newly acquired appreciation for classic country -- DeGraw strived on the new record for a more natural vocal style that served the lyrics instead of overshadowed them.

"I didn't want it to feel like a safe vocal performance," he says. "A couple of moments feel like a John Lennon, Shaved Fish, primal scream type of approach, where it's not about the notes sounding pretty, it's just about it feeling effective."

Part of the inspiration for DeGraw's new approach lies in his rough-and-tumble upbringing in the Catskills prison town of South Fallsburg, N.Y.

"I thought it was normal until I got out and saw more of the country, and I realized where I grew up was pretty weird," says DeGraw, who sang about his prison guard father and detox specialist mother in "I Don't Want To Be." "It's not normal to have three prisons in your hometown. You've got inmates' children going to school with officers' children, and no one's really sure whose parents did which."

DeGraw got his love of music from his classic rock-loving father. The elder DeGraw spent his last weekend before joining the military in 1969 at Woodstock and played for years in his own band, the People's Band. Another inspiration for DeGraw over the years has been his older brother Joey, a voiceover artist for the A&E and Biography television channels and an aspiring singer-songwriter in his won right.

Joey also inadvertently helped set his little brother on his current musical path, when the older boy's boxing trainer turned Gavin on to soul artists like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles.

"He gave me a couple of albums, and he said, 'I want you to listen to these, learn a couple of the songs, and women will do things to you that you will not understand,'" DeGraw remembers. "I said, 'I can't wait to play these records.'"

Delta Fair & Music Festival at Agricenter International

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for children ages 5-12. Fair events include a rodeo, motorcycle stunt shows, monster truck and hot-air balloon rides. Deltafest.com

Music this week at Delta Fair & Music Festival

Saturday

Main Stage

11 a.m. -- "Disney's High School Musical 2" live stage performance

12:30 p.m. -- McKenzie Knapps

1 p.m. -- Inis Acla Irish Dancers

2 p.m. -- "Disney's High School Musical 2" live stage performance

5 p.m. -- Chris Love

7 p.m. -- The Dirt Brothers

9 p.m. -- Foghat

10:30 p.m. -- On a Dead Machine

Delta Stage

6 p.m. -- Brad Postlethwaite (Snowglobe) and the Makeshift Mafia

7 p.m. -- Jeffrey Evans and Ross Johnson

8 p.m. -- J.D. Reager and the Cold Blooded Three

9 p.m. -- Two Way Radio

10 p.m. -- The Subteens

11 p.m. -- Skindo-G and the Family

Crossroads Stage

Noon -- Bluegrass Showcase

4 p.m. -- John Mathewson

7:45 p.m. -- Carol Plunk

Sunday

Main Stage

5 p.m. -- Webb Dalton

7 p.m. -- Pearl Heart

8:30 p.m. -- The Romantics

Delta Stage

7 p.m. - Trey Jewell

Crossroads Stage

4 p.m. -- Bryan Hayes

6 p.m. -- Melinda Milligan

Monday

Main Stage

1 p.m. -- William Lee Ellis

3 p.m. -- David Evans

5 p.m. -- Eric Hughes Band

7 p.m. -- Watoto de Afrika

8:30 p.m. -- The Bo-Keys

Delta Stage

12:30 p.m. -- The Lo Note Duo

5:30 p.m. -- The Daddy Mack Blues Band

8 p.m. -- Duwayne Burnside

Crossroads Stage

7 p.m. -- Kenny Hays

8:30 p.m. -- The Blind Ducks

Tuesday

Main Stage

9:30 p.m. -- Cute is What We Aim For

Delta Stage

7:15 p.m. -- Legends of Rock

Wednesday

Main Stage

7 p.m. -- Brad Kessler Band

8:30 p.m. -- Pulse, Pink Floyd Tribute

Delta Stage

7 p.m. -- Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners

Crossroads Stage

7 p.m. -- Nancy Apple Pickin Party

Thursday

Main Stage

7 p.m. -- Tom, Dick and Harry

9 p.m. -- Carolina Liar

Delta Stage

6 and 8 p.m. -- Darby Ledbetter

Crossroads Stage

7:45 p.m. -- Sky King

For more information, visit deltafest.com.