THE GREY
Music Review &  Lyrics
Words & Music by Mitch McVicker
Copyright © 2014 out of the box records 
Out of the Box Records
All rights reserved
Lyrics reprinted by permission from Mitch Mcvicker

 


 
 
Music Review: THE GREY
2014: UPDATE ON NEW MUSICMitch McVicker is at it again. With his latest recording, The Grey (When Black & White Fade), he points beyond our desire to make sense of everything. “The Love of God is beyond calculation,” he says. “Yet, we tend to try to measure life in black and white.” 

His music career has consisted of 1500 concerts and 10 albums and with his is latest project, McVicker looks towards the mysterious grey love of God. He says, “I hope the songs remind us that God’s all-encompassing love connects with us in all situations and through every circumstance.

After growing up in Kansas, McVicker began working with the late, great Rich Mullins. The two of them performed concerts together, wrote songs, and were roommates. Then, McVicker was in the car wreck that killed Mullins.

Shortly after Rich’s death, and while Mitch was still deep in recovery, the two won the GMA’s Dove Award for song of the year, for their writing of “My Deliverer”.

After a lengthy recovery, he began his own musical journey. Rich Mullins has influenced Mitch McVicker’s thoughts as much as he has influenced his music. 

This can be heard as McVicker speaks of embarking on his latest concert tour, “At this point in my life, I am setting out to be guided by the Love of God. Being led by love is a lot more scary, ambiguous, and, yes, grey, than following steps simply for the sake of the steps.”

He continues, “I want to live in the grey. That’s not to say that anything goes, rather, that’s to say that everything is included. Jesus seems to point out that the Kingdom of God is built upon a vast grey love.”

The Grey (When Black & White Fade) is the deep-lyriced, folk-rock that McVicker’s loyal listeners have come to love and expect. However, this self-produced endeavor is being lauded as his most artful and expressive project to date. 

McVicker has possibly never sounded more intimate and beautiful than in “Being Held” and “Seashells”. With “I’m-A-Goin’”, McVicker combines lush strings, driving beats, and ’60’s story-telling. People from all walks of life relate to the raw and truthful hope found in the earthy authenticity and modern sounds of "In Other Words” and "Still Afloat”.  In the rock ballad “Into the River”, McVicker tells a tale of painful peace with a gut-wrenching mix of this life’s hopelessness and other-worldly hope. 

Mitch lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and loves spending time with his wife, Paula, and their two children, Brooklyn (9) and Payson (4). McVicker, himself, wears all the hats required of a music career. He handles booking, creative and visionary management, publicity, tour management, recording, merchandise management, promotions, etc. 

McVicker states, “For Jesus, life is lived from the heart, soul, and spirit. He speaks of life being fueled by grace and led by an all-encompassing love. So I think calculating, measuring, and keeping track of our actions, and everybody else’s, just clutters the space in which love McVicker says he will continues to perform concerts and record albums “for as long as the Lord sees fit”, and summarizes, “I have often colored within the lines simply because the lines were there. That’s easy. That’s comfortable. But that’s not the call. McVicker says he will continues to perform concerts and record albums “for as long as the Lord sees fit”, and summarizes, “I have often colored within the lines simply because the lines were there. That’s easy. That’s comfortable. But that’s not the call.