John McVey
John McVey (born John McVey Criscitiello; November 18, 1959) is an American folk rock singer-songwriter from Princeton, New Jersey. His style of music is part of the new folk acoustic movement, bringing elements of pop, rock and folk music to modern audiences. Now living in Colorado, local magazine 5280 describes McVey by saying, "McVey's smooth yet lightly smoky voice create a soft rock, adult contemporary sound that draws worthy comparisons to Marc Cohen, Shawn Colvin, and Daryl Hall".
Beginnings
John began playing guitar and writing songs in grade school, and was a regular performer in high school. He was completely self-taught until college, where he majored in music, studying guitar with classical performer Edward Flower at Ithaca College. Later he studied under jazz guitarist Ted Dunbar at Rutgers University, who played with jazz greats Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner, Tony Williams and Gil Evans. McVey graduated from Rutgers with a BA and immediately began pursuing music professionally. He worked as a piano tuner while launching his songwriting and performing career.