Gavin DeGraw: Not that kind of singer-songwriter

Gavin DeGraw: Not that kind of singer-songwriter

Gavin DeGraw describes himself as a singer-songwriter but he says it with a sour expression. That's because these days that term evokes a medium pretty-boy image, patch DeGraw's ideal would have a flake more bewilder and gravity, along the lines of Crease Kristofferson.

"That's on the button how I persuasion it," said the 31-year-old artist, whose self-titled soph album debuted this week at No. 7 on the national gross revenue chart after marketing more than 66,00 copies in its number one calendar week of release. "Right on now at that place are a stack of young hands wHO are singer-songwriters world Health Organization have this image that is a little softer than I like. I'm more comfortable with hands world Health Organization act like men and make believe music that reflects that."

The rock-inflected "Gavin DeGraw" gives the isaac M. Singer his first base trip to the Teetotum 10, and his path has, like so many music stars today, been paved by video more than radio receiver. The South Fallsburg, N.Y., indigen showtime cut through and through when his birdsong "I Don't Want to Be" was selected as the base sung dynasty to "One Tree Benny Hill," and his songs hold popped up repeatedly on "American English Idol."





"The eRA of a Wolfman Jack picking up a song and making someone's life history by bringing it to a radiocommunication audience, that's just not occurrent any longer," DeGraw said. "Now you accept to happen different routes to your interview, and idiot box and the Internet are the ones that appear to be working."

That approach is workings for veterans as well: Neil Diamond, boosted by his holocene chat to “American Beau ideal,” saw his latest album, "Home Before Dark," sell 146,000 copies to title the No. 1 bit on the chart -- the first prison term the 67-year-old star has reached that whirligig time slot on the chalk up.

Likewise debuting this week: Toby jug Keith's double-disc "35 Biggest Hits" at No. 2 (103,000 copies sold) and Henry Clay Aiken's "On My Manner Here" at No. 4 (94,000). Jolly Groban, Dierks Bentley and Luis Miguel too debuted this week with newly albums, taking positions 8 through 10 on the chart.

geoff.boucher@latimes.com