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"I've never felt more like myself than I have on this album. I found myself, and I finally found my voice," the singer, songwriter and guitarist Graham Colton says of the forthcoming CD, Here Right Now.

Don't call it a simple return. Call it a metamorphosis, a deep progression, an inspired evolution or - perhaps most fitting - a rewarding exercise in self-actualization. Stepping into his own in order to connect to his heart and artistic vision, Graham Colton has emerged with a stunning collection of pop-rock melodies, lyrics and emotions in 12 tracks that swing between love and heartbreak, trials and relief.

"The last album I made with my band was heavily influenced by what we all loved listening to and the artists we toured with. Looking back, it was hard for me to identify who I was as an artist in that situation. I had to learn how to be a performer and a songwriter in my own right before I could find my true self to make the album I really wanted to, which is now completely natural and one-hundred percent honest," Colton explains.

Although it can be said that the power of the story is in the telling, it's the tale itself that inspires the story to be told. Performance and delivery make up only one half of the equation; the other half is the feeling and emotion that inspires the creation of melodies and lyrics. That substance is the product of lessons learned over hundreds of shows and thousands of miles traveled, and the distance in between.

In the first single, Best Days, Colton sings, "It's a winding road/it's a long way home." His explanation? "I think that is what the last four years have been in my life, with touring the country and playing everywhere from bars to clubs to theaters to arenas. It was all a great dress rehearsal because I feel like it took that time - and it took those relationships whether they were with girlfriends, band members or meeting other bands on the road - to really find their way into these new songs. They just kind of lived in my suitcase as I was traveling the country, writing the songs, working with people, learning new things and listening to new music. Then it just kind of dwindled down to what I thought were the most honest and pure songs that I have ever written."

Indeed, Colton admits the grassroots elements that run throughout his music harkens back to his humble beginnings in Oklahoma City, where he grew up absorbing tidbits of his dad's record collection. "My dad was in a 60's cover band, I used to watch them rehearse songs by The Kinks, The Yardbirds, The Beatles. I liked the music, but all I wanted to do was sing with the band," he recalls. He soon got his wish at age 7, when he stood on a chair and belted out "Oklahoma" in front of a packed house. After learning to play the guitar at 12, he started writing his own songs (Colton still considers himself a songwriter first and a singer second), which led to small Saturday night gigs at a local Mexican restaurant, where Colton continued to absorb musical influences such as Counting Crows, Oasis, The Lemonheads, The Wallflowers, and R.E.M

After moving to Dallas to attend Southern Methodist University, a few of the home-recorded tracks from CD's he handed out at gigs turned up on the Internet via Napster and he started drawing a wider audience to his self-penned acoustic rock. "It was the right time. I didn't even know I had fans let alone songs floating on the Internet. That was the beginning and it was organic. From there more and more people came out to the shows," says Colton, who formed The Graham Colton Band with friends he recruited to play the bigger venues his newfound popularity required.

He soon drew the attention of one of his biggest influences, Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz, who got wind of Colton's following and booked the emerging act to open on six weeks of the band's 2002 college tour. A record deal with Universal Republic followed and The Graham Colton Band quickly amped up their tour experience, joining the Crows several more times and hitting the road with the likes of John Mayer, Maroon 5, Train, Kelly Clarkson and Dave Matthews Band.

See GrahamColton.com for more