David Gray

As the man who wrote Ireland's number one album of all time, 1998's <i>White Ladder</i>, David Gray knows to keep his songs eclectic. He makes piano melodies dance over simple acoustic guitar rhythms on “Fugitive,” croons like Ryan Adams on his biggest hit, “This Year's Love,” and blends a driving high-hat rhythm with somber synth and strings on “Please Forgive Me.” Claiming to feel too introspective in recent years, Gray now invites other powerful voices to help tell his stories: On his 2009 full-length <i>Draw the Line</i>, Annie Lenox fuses her rich and wavering vocals into Gray's blues ballad, “Full Steam,” and Jolie Holland warms the background on the melancholy, 3/4 time “Kathleen.”