Sean Patrick McGraw

SEAN PATRICK McGRAW has been knockin”em dead for over two decades, wowing arenas and honky-tonks alike with his real-life songs of love and loss and just gettin’ rowdy. He’s toured with Toby Keith, Trace Adkins, and a slew of other big-name acts, played on Jimmy Kimmel Live, written a Montgomery Gentry single, and composed and produced songs for film and TV.

Yet he’s never been comfortable being called “Country,” and his latest EP, “East Side Songs,” is anything BUT the cookie-cutter fare which currently pollutes the once-genuine genre. Sure, his amazing voice still sounds country, but his latest batch of self-penned songs defy further comparisons. He takes on subject matter that country radio wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole – subjects like corporate greed and the War on Drugs (All the Same), political divisiveness (Front Porch of America), and even manages to draw a parallel between broken homes and religion (Jesus Had Two Daddies), any of which would send the vast majority of country radio programmers running for the refuge of their focus groups.

McGraw likes to keep it real, because real is what he knows. He’ll be touring most of the Winter in support of the new release, and continues to write and record music for film and TV. In addition, he’s taken on the lead role (as well as Vocal Director duties) for Nashville’s first-ever full-length country-comedy opera, which debuts in the Spring.

As always, McGraw refuses to be defined.