Gar Ragland is a producer, musician, and president and co-founder of the NewSong Music Group. A native North Carolinian (Winston-Salem), Ragland began his music career while an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, sharing bills with acts that include the Dave Matthews Band, Gov’t Mule and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. After working several years in Washington, DC as a researcher for the environmental economic policy think tank Resources for the Future, Ragland relocated to Boston to study composition and improvisation at the New England Conservatory with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award winning pianist, composer and educator Ran Blake. It was there in 2001 that he started producing his fellow classmates’ demos and records, and co-founded NewSong Music.
In 2005 Ragland moved to New York City, working out of his studio in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 2012, he relocated with his wife and three children to Asheville, NC to take up residence at Echo Mountain Recording Studios; and in 2020 founded Citizen Vinyl, presenting sponsor of NewSong Music.
Ragland is a voting member of the Recording Academy (Grammys), and currently serves on the board of the Asheville Area Arts Council.