David Gray Artist Profile

David Gray
News:

Aug 17, 2010

Boston, MA

Bank of America Pavilion

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 18, 2010

Boston, MA

Bank of America Pavilion

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 19, 2010

Wantagh, NY

Jones Beach

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 20, 2010

Camden, NJ

Susquehanna Bank Center

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 22, 2010

Nashville, TN

Bridgestone Arena

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale: June 25 @ 10 am CDT

Aug 23, 2010

Atlanta, GA

Chastain Park

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale: June 19 @ 10 am EDT

Aug 25, 2010

Chicago, IL

Millennium Park/ Pritzker Pavilion

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 26, 2010

Rochester, MI

Meadow Brook Music Fest

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 27, 2010

Toronto, ON

Molson Amphitheatre

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale: June 5 @ 11 am EDT

Aug 29, 2010

Council Bluffs, IA

Stir Cover @ Harrah’s Council Bluffs

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 30, 2010

Morrison, CO

Red Rocks Amphitheatre

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Aug 31, 2010

Santa Fe, NM

Santa Fe Opera House

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 01, 2010

Phoenix, AZ

Dodge Theatre

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 03, 2010

Las Vegas, NV

The Pearl Concert Theatre at The Palms

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 04, 2010

Valley Center, CA

Harrahs Rincon

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 05, 2010

Santa Barbara, CA

Santa Barbara Bowl

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 07, 2010

Los Angeles, CA

Greek Theatre

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale: July 10 @ 10 am PDT

Sep 08, 2010

Los Angeles, CA

Greek Theatre

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 10, 2010

Berkeley, CA

Greek Theatre

w/Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 11, 2010

Troutdale, OR

Edgefield

w/ Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Sep 12, 2010

Redmond, WA

Marymoor Amphitheater

w/ Ray LaMontagne - Public Sale On Now

Less than a year after releasing his critically acclaimed eighth album Draw the Line, David Gray has announced the release of a new studio album, Foundling, out on August 17, 2010 on Mercer Street Records/Downtown Music. This two-disc set will feature the full length album and a nine-song bonus disc featuring never before released material including the first single "A Moment Changes Everything."

Recorded in London and produced by himself, Foundling picks up where Draw the Line leaves off, creating a new chapter of lush, soulful songs that finds Gray returning to his folk music roots. The first single, "A Moment Changes Everything" is an upbeat driving force, while songs such as the album opener "Only The Wine" and the bluesy title track "Foundling" show David Gray’s understated artistry and hauntingly beautiful vocals that have garnered him fans across the globe.

Foundling Track Listing

Disc 1

1. Only The Wine

2. Foundling

3. Forgetting

4. Gossamer Thread

5. The Old Chair

6. In God’s Name

7. We Could Fall In Love Again Tonight

8. Holding On

9. When I Was In Your Heart

10. A New Day At Midnight

11. Dave Jones' Locker

Disc 2 - BONUS DISC

1. Fixative

2. Morning Theme

3. The Dotted Line

4. A Million Years

5. Who's Singing Now

6. Old Father Time

7. Indeed I Will

8. A Moment Changes Everything

9. More To Me Now


David Gray’s Bio

David Gray is not one to rest on his laurels; 12 million album sales, the best selling album in Ireland ever with 'White Ladder', a BAFTA nomination for his soundtrack work on Amma Assante's 2004 film 'A Way Of Life'. Two Ivor Novellos, a Q award, two Brit nominations, and a Grammy nomination.

Those laurels, in fact, might not be an actual pain in the arse, but they certainly make him fidget.

"I didn't have a masterplan but I knew that I was gonna make some wholesale changes at the end of making 'Life In Slow Motion'," the singer-songwriter says of his 2005, No.1 (seventh) studio album.

"I'd had a really good run, I'd built a band with some great people. But the creative spark that had been there, that [1998's] 'White Ladder' was born out of, was sort of gone. I just felt there was a need for some new energy and a new impetus to the whole thing. I was hungry."

"I wrote 'Draw The Line' in June 2007," he recalls of the song that gives his new album its title and the song, which lit the touch paper for the rest of the album.

Over the next two years Gray kept up that standard. New songs galore 'lurched' from his fingers, featuring guest vocal turns from Jolie Holland and Annie Lennox. 'Draw The Line' is the sound of an artist turning his lens, his camera, his vision outwards, providing an extrospective take on the world.

"I'd been very introspective for whatever reason," he admits. "Partly success, partly things that happened in my life around the time of 'White Ladder'. I guess as a singer-songwriter you're gonna have a little bit of that anyway in your makeup. My previous records were inward most of the time. But suddenly with the song 'Draw The Line' I'd kicked the front door down and I was outside. The world was my oyster: that's what I felt as a writer."

Pitching up in his studio of The Church, Gray set to work on his self-produced record, with esteemed assistance from his band. 'Stella The Artist' was an early favourite, a punchy song with an almost Glitter Band-ish intro.

"It's fun basically," says Gray. "It just became this wall of sound. And the lyrics are pretty much the first things that came into my head. It's me singing to the muse. 'Stella' is the giver of wherever all this stuff comes from."

She was prolific that week. Gray wrote three other songs in a matter of days. One of them, 'Fugitive', would become the album's lead single. It's built around nape-prickling piano and electric guitar, and soaring contribution from a gospel choir.

"I've been a fugitive from life, I've been hiding in my bubble. And I had this image of Saddam Hussein being pulled out a hole in the ground. That's where the "mud streaked fugitive" line came from. It's about hiding from life, from yourself. It's saying: don't forsake it all because there's something keeping you upright and keeping you walking down the street. And that force was coming flying out of me."

The songs kept flowing and for 'Kathleen' he had plans of a collaboration. American singer-songwriter Jolie Holland had supported him in the US, and he realised she was the perfect backing vocalist for what he had in mind. "On the tree of American music she is a rare thing these days," he enthuses. "Utterly authentic, a natural, she sounds like she could have been singing in the 1930s with Blind Willie McTell. She's got the blues in her blood."

For the album's epic finale, 'Full Steam Ahead', Gray also had big vocal ideas. Initially he thought the 'Righteous Brothers-style' song needed another male vocal. Chris Isaak was top of his list.

"It's a song with quite dark sentiments. I see it as a broad political thing, I think of the line from TS Eliot, 'a patient etherised upon a table', that's the state we're in as a collective mass. We're just sedated, talking shit. We're so disconnected from the guts of life most of the time. But it would have sunk under it's own worthy weight with another male singer singing with me," he laughs. "When I was demoing it with my own voice it was like two bullocks braying in a field – too testosterone!"

Enter Annie Lennox. "She has the presence and that little bit of bite. She's got enough attitude that she could carry the lines off with some real presence. She's got a tough voice. But when she came in not only did she bring that but she brought this joyous, pop energy – she lifted the song and gave us the chorus we were asking for."

'Draw The Line' is the warm, fresh, organic sound of David Gray in a new, revitalised light. He had all the success in the world, and more, but he was hungry for more – not more success, but more feeling. More heart. More soul. More songs. More life. The formula had become a stale and worn one.

"Hunger is a very accurate appraisal for how I feel," he says. "I got to say things as a writer that I've obviously been dying to say for years. Songs like 'Nemesis', 'First Chance' and 'Draw The Line' were so liberating. Images and ideas just flowing out and a bit of humour as well, and a bit of caustic soda ground in there too. A bit of spice to the whole thing. The camera was suddenly panning everywhere. It was just a wonderful feeling. I just feel very, very alive. That's the feeling that's in 'Draw The Line'."



David Gray’s Fans (15)


David Gray’s Comments

  • Nov 19, 2009

    Dana Plant

    "Fugitive" tops my list. This is one of his BEST CD's ever! Every song on it is awesome and I love the duet he does with Annie Lennox--Brilliant!


  • Nov 19, 2009

    Moses Valdez

    just looked you up, love the song and video to FUGITIVE...M



  • 30 Sep '09 02:49pm

    Paste Magazine Review

    David Gray: Draw the Line [Mercer Street/Downtown] By Rachael Maddux on September 21, 2009 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) Paste Rating 53 respectable User Rating (4 votes) 89 Your Rating sign in to rate A lighter shade of Gray British singer/songwriter David Gray last released a proper studio album in 2005. It was called Life in Slow Motion, and it was lovely. It was also a complete waste of that title, which could be far more accurately applied to his syrupy new LP Draw the Line. Opening track “Fugitive” and the string-swept “Jackdaw” are plucky enough, but the nine other tracks mostly sink into a mire of hookless, humorless mid-tempo muck. The songs themselves aren’t all that bad (though Gray’s apparent unfamiliarity with the concept of slant rhyme is occasionally maddening—get the man some Emily Dickinson, stat!), they just sound like they were produced in the midst of a massive blood-sugar crash. This includes “Kathleen,” the could-be-stellar duet with Jolie Holland, in which Gray’s broguish tenor completely overpowers her delicate warble. And big closer “Full Steam Ahead,” a walloping duet with Annie Lennox, arrives a little too late to stoke the engines.
  • 30 Sep '09 02:47pm

    Exclusive Online Performance with Q&A

    Wednesday, September 09, 2009 Exclusive Online Performance with Q&A In the week leading up to the release of David's eagerly anticipated new album Draw The Line, out in the UK on September 14, David treats his fans to an online performance via DavidGray.com, Facebook and an exclusive partnership with telegraph.co.uk on Thursday, September 10, 7 pm BST. David will perform five songs, including 4 tracks from the new album, as well as answering questions submitted by his fans. As an extra bonus you can chat with other David Gray fans via your Twitter account. This exclusive and unique opportunity to hear David perform tracks live and answer your questions upfront before the release of his first studio album in four years is not to be missed.


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