MATTHEW BERINATO
Back in 2003, the music industry was riding a wave of nu-metal – 50 Cent and Eminem – yet an unlikely album carried an unlikely new artist to stardom.
It was called Chariot, and it instantly put Gavin DeGraw on the map, introducing a soulful, salt- of-the-earth star with a singular vocal and timeless vision of pop. Standing in stark contrast to its aggressive, digitally enhanced contemporaries, DeGraw calls what happened next “a hell of a ride.” Feel-good tracks like the outsider’s anthem “I Don’t Want to Be” became the theme song to the hit show One Tree Hill, and a double-Platinum, Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hit. The rousing title track went Platinum, and “Follow Through” followed through to go Gold, while DeGraw himself became the standard bearer of new-school, blue-eyed soul. Now, a little over 20 years later, he’s looking back.
Out September 27, DeGraw’s Chariot 20 celebrates the just-passed 20th anniversary of that breakout album, with re-recorded (and re-imagined) songs from a throwback pop masterstroke. Produced by GRAMMY favorite Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell) and featuring two previously unheard tracks, the project is more mature sounding but no less passionate, and often cleaned up with extra keys and soulful definition, as DeGraw lets his self-written gems breathe. But even now, he’s still catching his breath from where Chariot took him.
“It’s been a great ride, and I feel like it’s just the beginning,” the Nashville local says. “I feel like I’ve been lucky to have a career that’s lasted this long. I mean, still being around 20 years after the original release? People who do what we do for a living, we all worry about just coming and going. So, I’ve been very fortunate to have an audience this whole time.”
A native of Upstate New York who got started in New York City, that audience was built from fans who appreciate the timeless, rather than the trendy. Coming of age in the era of boy bands and MTV’s TRL, DeGraw’s classic-pop vibe stood out immediately – almost feeling like it came from a different planet.
With a nimble, raspy tenor and wide dynamic range, softer piano-rock productions, and tender self-penned tunes full of wonder, DeGraw’s point of view was miles different from the anger and hyper-sexualization found elsewhere. Right from the start, he wanted to make something that would last, something for the grownups.
“A large portion of it was really based on me not fitting into what was ‘pop culture,’” DeGraw explains. “I thought, ‘Nobody’s writing songs from my perspective. Guys like me – dudes from these blue-collar towns – are not being represented.’ You had your boy bands, and there was still some gangsta rap, and I was like, ‘Well, what about me?’”
“It was all based on my own personal taste in that I always liked older music,” he goes on. “I liked classic rock, and I liked old R&B and Doo- wop, and I liked Sinatra. My ear always lent itself towards things that didn’t need autotune and coming up in that era of the music business, I knew a lot of acts were having success with those sounds. But it wasn’t the type of sound that me, as an adult man, gravitated towards.”
Listening back today, DeGraw thinks Chariot aged well – but few artists ever get the chance to re-do their career-defining work. After signing with Sony Music Nashville in late 2023, DeGraw jumped at the chance, choosing Cobb and his Savannah, Georgia, studio for the job – his second time working with the hitmaker (following his 2022 album Face The River).
Feeling right a home with Cobb’s preferred recording style, DeGraw and a team of A-list players stuck largely to the original script, recording Chariot’s songs just as they were written, but with the benefit of having lived with them for years. Laying down full takes of each song live and surrounded by a real band, they celebrated the act of collaboration by day and relaxed by a riverside campfire each night, giving each track a clean, crisp presentation. And a despite the years, a much richer vocal.
DeGraw was in his mid-20s when Chariot first came out. Now 47, his famous voice is fuller and more confident, benefiting from the musical wisdom of knowing when to push, and when to hold back. Anything the magic of the song calls for.
“I feel like I had a really good opportunity to see where I could take that same [music] if I could add a little depth to it, just simply by adding years of my life to it,” DeGraw explains. “A man’s voice doesn’t hit maturity until maybe around 45 or so. So now that I’m in that age group, I feel like there’s a warmer tone. It’s a better vocal tone than I had as a younger man.”
Renewed tracks like his most famous hit, “I Don’t Want to Be,” certainly found a sweet spot. A biographical favorite that accurately described DeGraw as the son of a prison guard and a detox specialist, it was partially inspired by not fitting in as a musician, and he still remembers showing an early version to two key friends who predicted its success – bass player Alvin Moody and his brother, Joey. He still sings the track that “changed everything” every night on tour and sees that as a blessing. On Chariot 20 it trades warm electric guitars for soulful organ and a clean, classic groove, with DeGraw’s voice even prouder than it was in 2003.
“I’ll always love that song because it changed my life and because it really is my life,” he says. “My father really was a prison guard. My mother really was a detox specialist.” Others embrace his gritty classic rock side, while sunny soul and modern R&B help each of the 13 songs gain a unique identity. DeGraw likes to call Chariot 20 “very Bob Seeger meets Al Green,” and in that, longtime fans have something worth checking out. The set is not just a re-recording, and two new songs make that especially clear.
A funky, slow-groovin’ blast of R&B, “Get Lost” writhes with desire to slip away from the world with the one you love. “It feels like something Leon Russel would have written,” DeGraw says. And “Love Is Stronger” holds true to the family-friendly values of DeGraw’s artistic vision – a soft-hearted anthem to the power of invisible bonds.
Both were written for the original Chariot but left off the album, and he welcomes the chance let them see the light of day. In fact, DeGraw says he trusts the timing of this anniversary re-make completely, feeling like it’s meant to remind him how lucky he is, and inspire the next leg of the journey.
“Chariot changed the entire dynamic of my life,” says DeGraw. “Just going from someone who was surviving on pizza and coffee, to being able to pay the rent, really changed my whole world. I’ve been pinching myself the entire time because it wasn’t lost on me how lucky I was, and the fact of the matter is the odds are not in your favor. It’s with complete appreciation that I’ve had the opportunity to do this at all.”