Jason Gray

Jason Gray, a Christian singer and songwriter, links reflective contemporary folk to melody-driven pop while incorporating his distinctive spiritual outlook. He first surfaced during the 2000s and reached a broader audience once he joined Centricity Music. A two-time ASCAP Performance Award recipient, Gray notched two Top Ten Christian chart entries with “Good to Be Alive” from the 2011 album A Way to See in the Dark and “With Every Act of Love” from Love Will Have the Final Word in 2014. His fifth studio album, Where the Light Gets In, arrived in 2016 and climbed to number five on Billboard’s Christian Albums Chart.

Born Jason Jeffery Gay in Minneapolis in 1972, he adopted the stage name Gray in 2005 after growing up in a musical household and frequently touring with his band-playing mother. His parents divorced in the early 1980s, after which his mother converted to Christianity and redirected her performances from rock clubs to the revival circuit. Influenced by Christian pop and rock as well as Paul Simon, U2, and Daniel Lanois, Gray began writing original songs, became active in his church youth ministry, and entered music ministry full-time by 1998, issuing a series of independent contemporary Christian recordings from 1997 through 2005.

Centricity Music signed Gray in 2006, drawn to the candid honesty and devotional character of his material; the label issued All the Lovely Losers the next year. The live set Acoustic Storytime followed in 2008, then Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue in 2009. Gray’s accessible, introspective songwriting reached its largest audience with A Way to See in the Dark in 2011, which charted on Billboard’s Top Christian Albums and Heatseekers Albums lists. Outside his recording career, he works as an advocate for young people confronting adversity, especially African children orphaned by AIDS, through World Vision International’s Hope Initiative.

The year after 2011 he released his first holiday project, the Cason Cooley-produced Christmas Stories: Repeat the Sounding Joy. In 2014 he delivered the studio album Love Will Have the Final Word, which topped the relevant charts. Where the Light Gets In, his fifth long-player, debuted at number five on the Billboard Christian Albums chart and number 165 on the Billboard Top 200 in 2016. After an album made with his son Kipper Gray, he returned in 2019 with Order, the opening installment of a planned trilogy of five-song EPs.