The Gray Havens with Colton Venner

The Gray Havens
When your band is named after Tolkien’s mythical seaport where ships sail away to a far country, listeners know to expect something a little different, perhaps even something with glimpses of eternity.

That’s the sort of music The Gray Havens have been making since 2013. Husband and wife duo Dave and Licia Radford craft songs that take on the structure of a story, sometimes epic and metaphorical, other times profound in their simplicity. Those glimpses of eternity shine in rich musical compositions, lyrical imagery, and the smallest enchanting detail that can make a song transcendent.

Those same glimpses of eternity inspired The Gray Havens’ fourth studio release, 2018’s She Waits. Dave recalls, “One day I told Licia, ‘I think I want to write a Heaven record.” With that daunting goal, the band set out on what would become the most difficult songwriting journey they’ve ever faced. “Making this record was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done creatively (maybe period),” Dave confesses. “The lyrics were far from finished going into the studio, and we were hoping that I’d be able to keep pace with recording by day and finishing lyrics by night. That didn’t happen.”

Colton Venner
Colton Venner is an Americana singer-songwriter from Dallas, Texas. Over the past 3 years, Colton has released 2 EPs and 2 stand alone singles. He began writing music his freshman year of college at Dallas Baptist University where he recorded his first EP with friends he met during his years studying. All the while he played shows at houses, venues, and coffee shops all around the DFW metroplex. Now, years later, Colton has started to embark on a musical journey in various venues and cities around the country.