GAVIN DEGRAW: "Face The River"

May to the work of motherhood. Let's spend the month of June showering dads and all those that filled dad roles, granddads and stepdads and godfathers and and those people that filled the role of father. Let's celebrate them with heartfelt appreciation. My podcast is one place will be sharing the love. My radio program is another, and I'll be looking for good dad based content from my social media pages too.

Today's guest uses his writing talents, putting into words and then into songs the type of emotions that are only felt when one loves on a deep and profound level. His latest album, Face the River, was born out of love for his father, who was nearing the end of his life. It's real and raw and powerful and a beautiful testament to exactly what kind of impact the love

of a father has on his children. Multi Platinum singer and songwriter Gavin degra joins US today, will be talking about his seventh full length album, Face the River, which was released in May. It's fusion of rock, pop, soul, and funk. Will be talking about his parents, who inspired much of its material. And I'm sure we'll take some detours too, like I'm prone to do. Before we get into all that, I'm going to share a little bit about a podcast sponsor that I'm so grateful to for

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Live Fierce episodes wherever you listen to your podcast. Hello, I'm nice to meet you, Hi, Gavin, I'm Delilah, nice to meet you. Hey. The first time I listened to Face the River, I'm glad my sister sent it to me. Uh And I was home in my bedroom because I was in the pillow, standing there facing that river. I couldn't cross. Wow. That's heavy. It's beautiful, heavy, but beautiful. Wow. Thank you. So I was told that when you were writing this album, you knew that you were going to

lose your dad. I was pretty sure, you know, I was hoping for a miracle, but you know, the miracle never came with my mother, so I was less uh less sure that a miracle would come from my dad, you know. And he kept asking me to hear the record that I was working on and I just knew I had this thing had to be finished. I had to finish this thing. I had to play it for him. Um. And he had heard three songs when he was hospitalized.

At one point I had gotten ahold of three songs to play for him and we had a good cry in the hospital and that he was very moved and he said, Uh, I wish your mother could heard this. And I said to him, I said, she wrote the record. That you know, she wrote the record And he said she did, She did write the record. And when he came home, Um, it was home for weeks and weeks, and uh, the album was finally completed, you know, mixed, mastered, I said him. I said, hey, records done. You want

to hear it? It's like yeah, yeah, yeah, played for me, played for me. So we sat there playing the album. We got through the end of the record. My brother and I hopped in the car to go for a drive out to Kentucky and uh we got a half hour and the phone rang and there was a big medical emergency and my dad had to be taken to the hospital and uh put on heavy, heavy paint killers.

And that was the last That was the last real cognizant time we got to have with him, you know, because the next day and a half was basically that you know, that slow boat out. So I, I, without exaggeration, had the opportunity to play him the album and its

entirety a half hour before. I wouldn't have been able to do that, and so that it may not seem like a big deal to people who weren't in my shoes, but me, it provided some semblance of closure with my dad that we got to share that experience together because he'd been asking me for the music for so long, and and I was a race against time to play it for him, and I got to complete it rather than rather than me finishing after losing him, you know,

that would have been even more devastating. I would venture to say that that was one of the things he was hanging on for. Maybe maybe you're right, Yeah, maybe you're right. I don't know. I'll find out when I see him again. You know everything I've read, your folks were your were your cheerleaders, were always in your corner, big time, big time. Even more than that, I mean they were they were the coaching staff, you know that

was the head coach and that's what they were. They were they were they were the head coach together and mama, anivational team, my tactical squad, you name it. And they were the encouragement. You know, there wasn't money to fall back on there. It was only the gold and silver of that household was them encouraging me and encouraging they encourage their kids. You know. They they they were dreamers and they weren't living their dreams for their careers and

their passions. But they wanted us to, Um, they wanted us to have the opportunity to do that. And it was constant, constant motivation, constant inspiration and challenge and you know, don't take no foreign answer kind of thing, um unless they know came from that of course. But you know, so so so, I've read a little bit of their love story. Can you share just a tiny bit because

it's so sweet, it's so tender. I mean, this is a kind of story I share on the radio every night, that their love stories one of those those classic love stories. It's a beautiful love story. Yeah, I mean they were high school sweethearts. I mean to the point where high school sweethearts, at the point where remember in high school. I was. I was after school. I was walking down the hallway. I was grabbing some things from my locker late after school. My father can't pick me up, and

he said, come down here. I said where it should come down here? Come down here? And I walked down the hallway and he said, you see this water fountain right here. I said yeah. He said, the first time I ever saw your mother. She's getting to sit out of this water fountain right here. So they were high school sweethearts, and you know, I went to the problem together.

They went to Woodstock together, and as my father told it, he went to Woodstock with his draft papers in his back pocket for Vietnam because he had to go to uh Texas for basic after the weekend and fortunately was not sent into combat, was sent to Germany instead. And then he got sent home to take care of my granddad because my granddad had other issues from the War two combat. There's a lot of people who have been in military and my family so um. But anyway, he

came home. She had already gone off to college and got married, and then when she came back, she saw my dad land pavement on the road doing black you know, black top work and uh, psalm said hello and went home and got divorced, and uh then they got married. You know, it's just a long, complex but beautiful, real life love story. You know, I saw him and realize she had taken a wrong turn and missed out on her true love. That's it. Yeah, that's right, that's right.

And uh, you know they got back together and that that was they're married for, you know, forty seven years before my mom passed. I think it was did your dad know when he saw her at the drinking fountain? Like, was it love at first sight? Did he say, I knew she was going to be my girl. He's probably like, she's taking a really long time. I'm thirsty kidding. Uh, I don't know. I didn't ask him that specifically, but

he didn't remember the first time he saw her. And he used to play, uh, playing bands, you know, as a young man, I always thought he was the greatest singer. Um she played music as well, but he was out playing music for a living, and uh, he said, you know, I was real shy, and he said, where my baseball cap over top of my face like this? Because I had states right. Sometimes i'd peek up and see people and girls will be going like this, trying to look

underneath the brim of my hat he's singing. He said, Uh, sometimes there are real pretty girls out there. But if I ever pick my head up and I saw your mom, it was like there was nobody in the room but her, And I said, how nice is this? Is a nice stories here? You know when you're when you're a kid, it's like a fairy tailed kind of kind of affection,

which is nice. But we're from an area in upstate New York, in the Catskill Mountains that if you've ever seen the movie Dirty Dancing, I'm sure you have, right many times. I saw it when it first came out. I saw it with my kids, and I don't let my kids watch the remake. They gotta watch the real thing. Yeah, the real thing, right, I agree. So the place i'm I'm from. The area I'm from is the area that

the film Dirty Dancing is based off of. So in the Catskill Mountains in New York State, which is you know, we were about an hour and forty minutes out, forty five minutes and from Manhattan. That's where a lot of people would go to vacation in the summertimes to escape the New York City right, particularly in like the forties and fifties and sixties, So that was the big industry up there was entertainment and uh you know, resort living, golf courses and stuff like that, and it was a

real reflection of U of the time. You know. I guess air conditioning wasn't as popular yet, and air travel wasn't as easy. It wasn't as easy to be the heat back then. It was only a short drive. So all the big entertainers would come up there and perform

at those hotels. Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin. Uh I have pictures of my my great grandfather who was actually just like there to dance, and he was a dance instructor at a resort hotel and he made his kids teach the guests to teach him how to dance, teach him how to mambo and all that stuff. And he was an MC at a hotel called the Laurels. And uh, I got these great old photos of my great granddad with Sam Cook and That'll Fitzgerald and all these great

stars of the of the time, you know. But the hotel industry um for whatever reason, political or just the changing of the times, the hotel industry died off in the cat Skills, and with that the economy tapered off, and then the state built prisons in the area. So I grew up in the prison town era of the

dirty dancing area, right. And then my dad, who was a musician playing at those hotels as a kid, became a prison guard as a you know, as a motive survival in the area, picking up odd jobs and stuff along the way on his days off, building houses and cleaning chimneys and and momon lawns and stuff like that. And my mother was a nurse who was putting in you know, tons of o t and she decided she needed to get her masters w hoping to make more money.

She joined the Army reserves. She's commuting an hour each way for work. She's going to school full time, work full time doing the army thing. And it was just really heavy to watch them working so so much and not complaining to us about it. And they just they had their you know, their head to the grindstone and there they were just trying to make our lives, our

lives better. And we were a big time Churchill hallics, you know, I say, we we went to church at least once a week twice when God didn't listen, you know, so he goes Sunday. If nothing changed on Monday, go back on Wednesday. And that's it. That's it. Gotta be there on Wednesday for youth group. That's it. That's it. I wanna and all that stuff. I think that all the good things that happened ultimately were a direct result of my mother's prayers and that tenacity and that belief

in us and that constant, that constant motivation. You can do it, and you just need to commit more than everybody else. Um. And that's uh. And that's really that's really it. You know how proud they must be. You know. I I got syndicated out of upstate New York, Rochester. That's where my syndication started about six months after. Yeah, I loved Rochester. I love the frozen custard and upstate New York. No place else in the world has frozen custard.

That's the thing. It's true, right, Why is it? I don't understand. I don't know. I don't know what it is. The cows make better milk, I don't know what it is. But I used to drive the catskills every week, uh for almost a year, except when it was snowing so hard I couldn't um. But my mom passed in September,

And like you, my mom was my biggest cheerleader. Like when she passed, I found a notebook filled with every magazine article, newspaper article that I had ever sent her, you know, pictures of me at a at a used

car shop doing a remote. And she passed in September, and then my syndication started the following February, and I was so sad, and I was I was telling my best friend, I said, gosh, you know, Mom, leave to me so much, and and I just I wish she could see that I'm finally you know, I'm finally making that happen. My dreams are finally coming true. And Janey said, what do you mean you wish you could see? She goes, why the hell do you think this happened. This happened

because she's with the Lord nagging him. God, please give my daughter a break. She can't get fired again. And I said, you're right, that's right, you're right, that's right. Yeah, she went, that's right. She went from being a member of the band to the conductor. Yeah, yeah, she she had his undivided attention. Now she's orchestrating. That's right. Now, she's orchestrating. That's right. That that's the beauty of it.

And uh and and also you know, just all of the things that were we're happening, We're already that we're going to happen. We're already set in motion due to her participation in your life and her her dedication in your life and lessons that you know, she'd already instilled into you. And almost as if people go and they feel like you're ready for it. I just feel like, however, that may have happened for you, even though you think you may have thought, you know, initially, I wish she

could have seen it. She knew what was happening. He was already in motion. The pieces were just all coming together. That's the beauty of it. So your your siblings, how many kids did your folks raise in the skills? There are three of us. There were three of us, and and my sister, she lives in Nashville. We all moved to Nashville together, and we all all of us other

than my sister and her kids. It was my sister and my brother and I said, there were three of us, and my sister moved into a house south of Nashville, just south of Nashville, but the rest of us, my brother and I and my parents, we all had apartments on the same floor in the same building in downtown. So we're like a condo tribe once we relocated, you know, because we wanted to be around each other when I was off the road. I want to be able to see them without having to hop in the car and

go visit. And so it was a really great way to be able to participate in normal life when you know, when I wasn't being a musician. It's time to tell you about another of my fabulous podcast sponsors, and then we will return to our chat. Gavin, I want you to feel better this spring, a pain free spring, if

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hundred nine four zero zero five nine nine. That's eight hundred nine zero zero five nine nine. So did you were there other apartments on this floor or did you guys have all of them? Oh? No, there were there were a couple of Because can you imagine that being the people in the other apartments, Like I can imagine if I was a person in the other apartment, I would be like, I would just go over to buy a cup of sugar every day so I could be a part of your family. I'd want to be in

on the laughter and the music and the fun. I'd want to be a part of that. Well that Dolly Parton had an apartment down the hall, and and ironically I never I never saw her one. I'm not um. I would have loved if Dolly would have came over and said hey, and no had coffee with Yeah. If I, if I had an apartment there, Gavin, I would be knocking. I wouldn't be knocking at your door and be knocking on your mama's door, because she would be the one

with the stories. She would be the one with the stories. Oh. Absolutely. And it's funny that you say that because my mother was the living encyclopedia of the family, you know, every single memory. Every time we couldn't recall an exact story, it would always be, hey, mom, what was the section? Sucker, that's my sister. I'm the storyteller, and I don't I don't like it when facts get in the way, you know,

I just like making up stories. And Deanna is like, no, that's not the way it happened, that's not the year it happened, that's not the person that was there. Like, gosh, she sure can ruin a good story with the facts. You can't bring her around the campfire when you're telling the tall tales. Yeah, and the older I get, the holler they get because I truly don't remember. It's not like I'm trying to make stuff up. I just don't remember. Like I have an impression of the memory. Like I

used to write a lot of poems. I used to whenever I was in love or whenever I was not in love, I would write a poem. Now that'd be really good because they're all kind of all those experiences are kind of meshed into one, you know. Yes, yes, one great story, one great story. So your tour, if folks want to come and see you, You're you're performing again this spring and summer. Yeah, just go to Gavin. Yeah, just Gavindie Grow. So you know, if they're interested, come

on out. Hopefully they'll like what they what they see here experience, they will. Can I just say I got a sneak preview before you released Across the River your record. Folks got it to me. They are going to love. Wow, thank you love this album. Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, you know, I just wanted to do my best to uh, you know, make a real life record. That's all I wanted to I wanted to make a real life record, a zero bullshit record, and I was

permitted to do that. I was giving a very long leash and worked with the the producer of My Dreams on the record, and he let me write it alone, which is what I wanted because my first few records I wrote alone, and I had a lot to say, and I think the world went through a lot. I went through a lot with it, and I didn't wanna

pretending like nothing happened. I wanted to acknowledge that ship went down and document it, make it rhyme, be honest and and give people um at least my perspective of things, and uh, hopefully they like it. Well. I love it. I love it. That's nice. Thank you. You know. My father just he had a way of keeping it simple and effective. And you know, I asked him one day after my mom passed. I said, Dad, do you have any advice for me? And all he said was enjoy

your life. I said, that's it. He said, yep, just enjoy your life. And you're gonna usee that enjoyment on other people anyway. You know, you're gonna they're gonna feel that, and he also told me one other lesson I always stuck with me, which was run to the line. And I said, what, what what do you mean? He said, don't waste your energy trying to get away from something that's that you're fearful of. Whatever it is that you're worried about. You attack it. That's what you need to do.

You're not going to get away from it. And I thought that was just just such a good, simple lesson. He was good. Dead I would be trying to tame the lion. I'd be like offering the lion to come into my house. Uh, let's be friends. You were like, you haven't hung out with Wayne de Graw, No, but I will someday. Someday I will. And I'm gonna walk right up and I'm gonna introduce myself, and I'm going to say, you did a hell of a good job

raising your son. What was your mama's name, Wayne and Lynne, Wayne and Lynde de Graw, You did a fabulous job blessing the world with the talent of your boys. Thank you, Thank you for falling in love, thank you for making your family work, and thank you for raising such a talented son that shares his gift with the world. That's what I'm gonna say. Wow, Amendlila. I received that. That's beautiful, really and generous. Thank you. What a comment. Good lord,

thank you. Alright. I love your music. I love you, will be in touch. Thanks for that, Delila. I appreciate it so much. Thanks for taking the time with Let's really appreciate it. You're beautiful. Thank you. If you get back up to to to Upstate New York, go eat some frozen vanilla custard and think of Delilah. Oh damn, it's so good. It is so good. It's the best. It's absolutely I'm with you. There's nothing like it on the planet. Put Seattle on your tour, come out here,

come out here to the West. I'll take it. You know what, if you can put a few extra days or go to Portland's you can come down to Oregon to our cattle ranch and ride motorcycles with my husband. Let's do that. I'm in You are going to love love the music on Gavin's new album, Face the River. There are ten fold tracks. It's difficult for me to say which am I apps favorites, but Face the River is definitely one, so Powerful, Summertime and Lighthouse are a

few more. I really appreciate that each has its own unique sound. Some are very soulful, some are kind of funky, some really upbeat. You'll find what speaks to you, whatever mood you find yourself in. The album was released at the end of May, so it will be available to everyone by now. Gavin has also taken it on the road with his Full Circle tour this summer and into the fall, so check out his website Gavin Degrad dot com for tour dates, videos, and everything you need to

know about Face the River. The album would make a great gift for a music loving dad or granddad, or mom who filled in for dad, or anyone that loves music. I'm going to enjoy listening to it also, or long volume up, windows down as I drive the kids to their soccer games and some more activities. A musical reminder of how the love and support of a parent plays such an important role in the life of a child and the life they will eventually lead as an adult.

Enjoy your some some summertime, my friends, like the rest of the seasons that will be here and con before you know it. But make it a glorious one full of memories that will last a lifetime. And give your dad. If you have a dad, or a stepdad or a granddad, give them an extra big hug for me. Would Jack