Graham Colton visits LA

Graham’s day started off in Burbank with a showcase at ABC Music Studios. There he met with a lot of their music supervisors and staffers working on the films and television shows at ABC. Graham is the perfect artist for these types of showcases because he loves talking to everyone one on one and he performs so well with just his guitar and his songs. He really charmed them with his stories about the ideas he had about his new songs on this record and how they all somehow relate back to his high school experiences. ABC has already started using “Best Days” around the “October Road” show and from the response of this visit there could be more opportunities along the way. Big thanks to Leah Streetman for coordinating the visit and showcase.

Later that afternoon, Howie Pivar and I joined Graham and Marty for his showcase and visit with the MTV office in Santa Monica. Before his performance in their conference room, Graham had a chance to sit down with Joe (who helps head up the music side of MTV) to talk about his new album and how MTV is really trying to develop artists through other means besides their music videos. It was interesting to listen to the two of them talk about MTV’s hit show “The Hills.” At about 4:45 close to 40 or so MTV staffers filled the conference room. After a nice intro from Howie, Graham again won the room over with his performance and stories about his songs. He played “Telescope,” “If Love Was Enough,” “Forget About You,” and “Best Days.” After he finished playing, Graham stuck around to meet most everyone in the room, took photos, and signed posters for the MTV staff. MTV even surprised Graham with a Birthday cake before he left!! Thanks to David Nathan for putting together the whole visit and to Howie Pivar for supporting.

Finally that evening, Graham Colton took the stage at the Ivar Theater in Hollywood opening for Vanessa Carlton. The theater was a nice small intimate room which seated just over 250 people, which was perfect for Graham’s solo stripped down performance. Even though the audience was there primarily to see Vanessa, I was surprised to notice a lot of them familiar with Graham’s music – he even got a few requests from the crowd for “Cellophane Girl.” Graham had a short 35 minute, but he definitely captivated the audience made up of mostly females showcasing his voice and songwriting talents and really showed his charm and humor during some of his on stage banter. Graham even pulled off a cover of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” Afterwards, Graham came out to the lobby and sold through 30 CDs while chatting and signing autographs for fans.

In between sets, Marty gathered everyone from the Universal team including: Pat Monaco, Zack Gershen, Howie Pivar, Risa Matsuki, Mike Jakary, and some of Graham’s family and friends to wish Graham a Happy Birthday with some cake!!