Community of the Cross

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Event Description

While his work has garnered
gushing critical accolades, it wasn't primarily the literate craftsmanship of
his songs that drew the immediate respect of his peers and a solid fan base to
him. It was, rather, Jason's candor, his transparency, his willingness to
expose his own weaknesses night after night that created an inexplicable bond
with audiences and prompted Centricity Music to sign him in 2006. When a guy
who grew up as a chronic stutterer in an abusive home takes the mic and
obviously cares more about loving you than about what you think of him, you know
something's up.

Gray's discography over his
career is a logical progression from his earlier indie efforts to his recent
ambitious outings that find him skillfully marrying his trademark deft lyrical
expressions to smooth pop melodies and a disarming passion in a way that places
him somehow simultaneously in multiple camps, instantly begging comparisons to
a Brandon Heath on the one hand, and a Mark Heard or a Rich Mullins on the
other. For his part, Jason is content to leave the genre-parsing to others, in
favor of his more pressing agendas.

Jason's
music chimes with a sense of exuberance and surrender, with a hard-won joy that
can't easily be shaken since it rises inexplicably from every point of
defeat.  Jason's music tries to
assure us that we aren't alone. We might be broken, but we're a community of
the broken, bearing one another's burdens. Or, as Henri Nouwen puts it, we're
all "wounded healers," a label Jason embraces as much onstage as he
does in his relationships with his wife and three sons.

Jason's ongoing
work on behalf of AIDS orphans as a World Vision artist has for years been a
vital, shaping influence in his life and his art, affording him the opportunity
to travel to impoverished areas of Africa, and bringing him recognition as one
of "Ten Outstanding Minnesotans."