Tom McRae, born Jeremy Thomas McRae Blackall, is a singer-songwriter from Englan. The son of two Church of England vicars, he was born in Essex in 1969, and grew up in Chelmsford. McRae sang in the church choir and as a teen would borrow his mother's guitar. Initially trying to emulate his heroes, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Kate Bush, U2, he began to write his own songs and develop his own style. Age 18, he went to London Guildhall University to study politics and government and was soon forming bands. A chance meeting with recording engineer & record producer Roger Bechirian, (Elvis Costello, Squeeze, Carlene Carter, The Undertones), led to a working relationship. Bechirian helped to shape McRae's soft-spoken sound, which later gained McRae a deal with Dave Bates's db Records, (db/BMG records). Tom McRae's confessional, self-titled debut appeared in autumn 2001, during the height of the new acoustic movement and earned him comparisons to Nick Drake and Bob Dylan. Critics raved and McRae gained nominations for the Mercury Music Prize and the BRIT Award for Best Newcomer. By then, McRae was working with Oliver ("Oli") Kraus, cellist, and in 2003 was joined by Olli Cunningham on keyboards. McRae's second album, Just Like Blood, was released in the U.K. in February 2003 produced by Ben Hillier, whose credits include Elbow, Martha Wainwright and Blur. In 2004, McRae was nominated for a GRAMMY Award. Following this, he moved to California, where he wrote and recorded his next album, All Maps Welcome, which was released in May 2005. McRae's fourth album, King of Cards, recorded in Suffolk was released in May 2007.