 Now living in Colorado, local magazine 5280 describes McVey by saying, ""McVey's smooth yet lightly smoky voice create a soft rock, adult contemporary sound that draws worthy comparisons to Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, and Daryl Hall"".McVey began playing guitar and writing songs in grade school, and was a regular performer in high school.He was completely self-taught until college, where he majored in music, studying guitar with classical performer Edward Flower at Ithaca College.