Mat Kearney's music bridges barriers

Singer Mat Kearney crosses a lot of barriers with his music, but he prefers to be known for bridging them, not breaking them.

For example, his debut disc "Nothing Left to Lose," which hit No. 2 on Billboard's Heat-seekers chart last year, is mostly mellow singer-songwriter material. But in some songs, words spill forth in rap cadence. But Kearney calls it "spoken word," and says it's actually a bridge between history and hip-hop.

"I mean, rap -- to use that word seems like it brings up a connotation of something like Eminem or something, which is totally not what I do," he says.

"I was an English major in college, so I really liked spoken word and poetry; it was what I did before I wrote music. I was (also) listening to old-school hip-hop music . . . guys that had something to say. And so I was bridging the gap of, like, Faulkner and Flannery O'Conner and A Tribe Called Quest."

Kearney, 28, is a Christian who started out by licensing his first record to Christian label Inpop before signing with Columbia/Aware, but he feels more comfortable on a secular label, thank you.

"I never wanted to be on an exclusively Christian label," he says. "I think a Christian can take example from Jesus, who hung out with prostitutes and people like that. So I think I'm where I'm supposed to be and where God's put me is in the midst of people that struggle with real problems and are trying to figure out why they're here and what they want in life.

"It's silly to throw things out or label things. You know, is U2 a Christian band, or was Johnny Cash a Christian country singer? I don't know, but they're pretty open about their faith."

Kearney's amalgamation apparently has worked. His disc's title track was a bona fide hit, and several other songs have been on television shows "Grey's Anatomy," "One Tree Hill," "Friday Night Lights" and others.

"It's just funny how different media get to different people," says Kearney, who is heading VH1's You Oughta Know Tour.

"For my father, he didn't know what 'Grey's Anatomy' was. He didn't know who John Mayer was. But when I showed up on the 'Law & Order' TNT promo spot, he thought, 'Wow, my son has made it,' " he says, laughing.

"I could have played Conan and Leno, but to my friends' wives, it didn't mean anything until I was on 'Grey's Anatomy.' Then they were like, 'Whoa, you're big time now.' "