​         McCrae’s passion for music began early, as McCrae being adopted from an orphanage in Danville Virginia, into the musicical family of William and Rebecca Hines. McCrae grew up listening to his father play Old Time Music and Bluegrass on a Dobro while his mother, Rebecca’, sung from her beloved Hymnal. McCrae soon learned to play his father’s Dobro, and set his sights on buying a second-hand guitar.

      McCrae quit school in 7th grade, after the carnival came through the town of Danville Virginia under the allure that, “it would pay you money, and the fact that there was travel involved”. After traveling with the carnival for four months, he realized that there was “not much glamour involved in sleeping on the ground next to the big-top”.  However, the good news was that, McCrae had saved enough money to buy his first guitar. He took his earnings into a local Pawn Shop and bought his instrument of desire. With guitar in hand, McCrae began pouring his soul upon the strings, thus began a lifelong relationship with the guitar.

        When his idol Hank William’s Jr.  was going to play in Martinsville VA in 1978, McCrae began writing letters to Hanks manager with a tenacity that would surely annoy most anyone.  Yet on one Sunday morning, Rebecca answered the phone and said, “ A man by the name of J.R. Smith is on the phone and he wants you to meet them at the Martinsville High School auditorium tomorrow at 6 o’clock, with your guitar.

       From that point, McCrae played with the likes of Bonnie Rait, Allison Crouse, John Prine, David Bromberg, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and many more.

          In the early eighties, McCrae gave up on the ‘dog-eat-dog’ world of music and set aside the vagabond lifestyle to pursue other interest.  In 1983 McCrae was married and set his sights on being a respectable businessman. McCrae began building and selling, Harley Davidson Motorcycles. As McCrae placed just as much passion into business ventures as he once had into music, one thing led to another, and soon he had purchased many of the bar’s, and venues he had once played music in, and even became partners with some of his ‘music buddies’ in purchasing numerous Tattoo shops around the southeast, as McCrae stated,  “Hey, why not?  Who doesn’t love free tattoo work”.

      By the begging of the 90’s, McCrae felt like he was ‘On top of the world’, he not only had a covey of profitable business’s, he owned multimillion dollar homes across the southeast, and had even acted in a few feature films, yet in the stillness of the night he would awake and reminisce of the days of his youth. The Sundays filled with happiness and peace, with his mother and father, and the old time tent revivals and the inner-peace he had once felt as a child. He had every ‘worldly’ thing a man could want, but yet there was still something missing. One morning he picked up his Bible and began reading the story of Ecclesiastes. Solomon had it all, all the riches of the world, yet the words, “its all meaningless” (12:8), hit a nerve with McCrae. That day was sat aside with reading and remembering the words he once knew so well as a child. As everything around him seemed even more material than it ever had before, he knew, as King Solomon had also known, that his accumulation of worldly possessions, now ‘possessed him’ and were robbing him of his soul in the process.  [“What have ye that gain the world, and loose his soul in the process.” (Mark 8:36)]

        To call it a turning point in his life would be an understatement, as McCrae’s life and focus changed drastically. He immediately wanted to nothing more than to give back to humanity in whatever way he could. He remembered his roots of growing up in the orphanage, and set forth helping children from all walks of life. He looked around him and wanted to give of everything he had. He organized an ‘At Sea Adventure’ on his 80 foot sailboat for the, ‘Boy Scouts of America’ and volunteered his time to allow all Boy Scouts, without regard to any financial return, to have a fantastic sailing adventure. He worked with ‘challenged’ youth in his local community, and even set out to South America for missionary work. Upon seeing the conditions, of the small villages of South America, where many of the youth live, McCrae was so impacted, that the vowed to always remember that even the smallest of things should not be taken for granted, and should never be overlooked. McCrae cast aside his shoes to reveal his bare feet, as a memorandum unto this principal, and dawn’s them only till this day, where ‘required by law’. He continues giving forth his time to community outreach, and even furthered his spitual journey when a friend of his blessed him with a free scholarship, to Liberty University, in his home state of Virginia.

       Coming full circle, after finishing his theological studies, McCrae, re-entered the world of music, and songwriting, with a fresh perspective and a new approach, yet still giving of himself; a soulful voice that can relate to life’s, trials and tribulations.