Greg McGarvey is a songwriter living in the Delaware Valley. 

Born in Middlesex County, New Jersey on April 29, 1983, Greg comes from a musical family,

Greg’s grandfather Nelson, a talented multi-instrumentalist and singer, bought him his first guitar when he was six. That same summer, in what became an annual tradition, Greg’s guitarist father Scott took him to see The Everly Brothers perform. Electrified by the magic of their otherworldly harmonies, Don Everly’s famously powerful rhythm guitar playing, and their dynamic, genre-hopping, all-star band, Greg left Valley Forge Music Fair determined to get onstage with his own songs and his own band - and with both brothers’ autographs on his guitar.  

Immersing himself through his high school years in the music of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Neil Young, The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, and R.E.M., Greg’s early music ranged from melodic, acoustic ballads to high-volume rock with a heavy emphasis on improvisation. With his earliest collaborator, Nick D’Amore, Greg and his friends played acclaimed gigs at places like New York City’s Arlene’s Grocery, Philadelphia’s North Star Bar, Bucks County’s John & Peter’s, and New Jersey’s Court Tavern.  

After a brief lull in his songwriting, the death of Greg’s partner Marcella inspired him to resume his work. Inspired by the emotional directness of Patti Smith’s Gone Again (1995) and The Everly Brothers’ Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (1958), Greg finished Count The Colors, a ten-song tribute to his former girlfriend, in 2020.  

“how could you make something beautiful/in a place like this?” 

“No Grays And Blues,” was co-written with his old partner based on poems and letters that she left behind.  

“don’t be afraid/give your heart a chance/to love and be loved” 

This project inspired Greg to continue writing new material, and to revive the best of his older, unreleased work, including a suite of songs about coming of age in his beloved Bucks County.  

“when you know where you should go/how do you get across?/you don’t have a map/but you know you’re not lost” 

Greg performs in a variety of contexts - intimate acoustic performances, a traditional Irish folk band led by his talented friend Righteous Jolly (The Jolly Tinkers), and periodic, full-band concerts with his ever-morphing band that allow him to present the full range of his musical expression. He also releases instrumental and avant garde recordings as Groggy Tots Crave Mercy.  

Greg performs every August 21st in honor of his former partner’s birthday. He also performs every November 12th at Broken Goblet Brewing outside Philadelphia to celebrate the birthday of his favorite songwriter, Neil Young, and to raise money for local charities.  

When Greg’s father Scott died in 2018, he left behind a pile of reel-to-reel tapes that captured performances by the family in the 1950s and 1960s. This has inspired Greg and his family to continue the tradition, especially as his family’s youngest generation is discovering the joy of music.  

Greg’s musical focus during the COVID-19 pandemic is recording acoustic renditions of both his own songs and the songs that have inspired him. Recorded live (without overdubs or autotune) in a bedroom studio in his nineteenth-century house in Hopewell, New Jersey and using only the house’s natural echo, these videos have also been an opportunity to raise funds for food banks in the Delaware Valley. 

Greg is also a visual artist.