my life as hannah.: Music Monday: Gavin DeGraw

So, like I said in the last blog, I've set a blogging schedule for myself. I decided that one of the reasons I didn't blog regularly is because I didn't have exciting things happening in my life on a daily basis, so I came up with a solution. And this is one of my solutions - Music Monday.

Now, before I start, I'm going to make two promises about what this blog will/won't be.

1) This is not going to be me reviewing an album. In fact, it won't even be me reviewing an artist (necessarily), and that's for several reasons, the most important being that I am not a professional. Yeah, I took piano and trumpet lessons, and yes, I sing for the youth at my church, but I don't consider myself to be an extraordinary musician. What this will be is me telling you about music that I like and why I like it. Maybe you'll disagree, or maybe you'll agree, but my hope is that you'll discover someone that you've never heard of or gain respect for someone you didn't really like before.

2) I will not write about an artist I'm not completely familiar with. I get annoyed when people say they love a band or artist and then I find out they only know one song by that person. I have bands like that - I love a song they do, but unless I've listened to at least one of their albums all the way through, I'm not going to say I love the band. So, if that bothers you too, know that I'm not going to do that.

So here it goes.

This week, I picked Gavin DeGraw. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he is so tightly connected to One Tree Hill (he did the theme song plus made several appearances on the show), but I've been listening to him non-stop all weekend.

His song "I Don't Want To Be" was on his freshman album, Chariot and was picked by Mark Schwan (OTH creator) to be the theme song for One Tree Hill, which is where I first heard of Gavin. I went and bought the album (I was in 5th grade) and it has been one of my favorites ever since.

Since Chariot, he's released three more albums -Gavin DeGraw, Free, and Sweeter. All of them are so good, but none of them have been as good as Chariot, and that could be because it was the album that made me fall in love with him.

One of the reasons I love Gavin is because he is incredibly talented (obviously), but not just as a vocalist. I always appreciate people who not only write their own music, but who also play their own music and do it well. If you decide to go out and buy his albums, I have only one suggestion: get the "Stripped" version of Chariot. It's two discs, the first being the actual studio album and the second being an acoustic version of the entire album. The acoustic side is perfect. It's like being at a concert where you're the only audience member. It really showcases Mr. DeGraw as a pianist, and the fact that it has hardly any studio work done to it shows just how talented he is as a vocalist. He has one of the most unique voices of any artist out there today, and it's for this reason that I chose him for this week's Music Monday.