A literate and impassioned songwriter whose song characters are often caught barely hanging on at the edges of American life, Grayson Capps is a bit like a New Orleans version of Tom Waits, albeit more of a roots rocker in actual musical execution. Capps was born April 17, 1967, in Opelika, AL, the son of a Baptist preacher and an Auburn University student. After his birth, both of his parents ended up being teachers in Brewton, AL. They moved to Fairhope, AL, when Capps was in the seventh grade, and it was there that he developed a lifelong fascination with theater, eventually earning a partial scholarship to Tulane University in New Orleans to study acting, graduating with a B.F.A. in 1989. But acting wasn't the only thing Capps studied at Tulane.