Not the worst comparison you could get.
On the latest episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast, we sat down with JD Clayton to talk about his journey in country music thus far, his unique sound, the possibility of new music this year, growing up in Arkansas, van life and the challenges of being on the road as a touring musician with a young family, and much more.
The artist hailing from Fort Smith, Arkansas (and still driving the 7 hours between there and Nashville often) is fresh off the release of his second album Blue Sky Sundays. Fans have gotten to take in Clayton’s signature sound through the EPs and albums he’s offered up so far, but even with his discography growing, it can he hard to pinpoint what his signature sound is exactly.
So that prompted us to ask how he felt his style of music could be categorized, and he responded with this synopsis:
“Somebody joked once, ‘It’s like if Chris Stapleton did shrooms.’ But I did not say that. Country rock is the easy out. Americana is very easy (as well). It’s laid back… it’s the good kind of music.”
@whiskeyriff That’s one way to describe it. 😂 @JD Clayton // Check out the latest episode of Whiskey Riff Raff on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube. #whiskeyriff #whiskeyriffraff #jdclayton ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
To be clear, any comparison to Chris Stapleton is a compliment… even the ones that insinuate a version of Stapleton that’s on drugs.
We then mentioned that his music thus far seems to have a bit of a blues-country vibe to it, and JD Clayton proudly concurred. He chalked up that conclusion as a result of what he listened to – and didn’t listen to – as he was growing up:
“I’ve been told (I sound like) a cross between John Mayer and Chris Stapleton. Or Jack Johnson. Sometimes Creedence Clearwater Revival. I wasn’t raised on country. My dad hated country, so it wasn’t played in the house ever.
The folks I grew up listening to were early 2000s singer songwriters like Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Amos Lee. It wasn’t until I got to college that I discovered Chris Stapleton and kind of went down this path of learning about country music.”
Clayton also attributed his style to the wide variety of late 1960s and early 1970s rock that he was exposed to in his younger years. To put things simply, the Arkansas artist had a lot of music bouncing around in his head from years of being a fan, and once he became a creator of music himself, he brought all of those together with a through line of a shroomed-up Chris Stapleton.
Even JD Clayton said he’s often surprised to see his music included in very niche playlists that seem to appreciate all of the elements his music brings to the table:
“There’s a lot of playlists that have some of my tunes on them. Like night time cooking playlists. If you want to set the mood with my music, you may.”
All in all, it was a great conversation with JD Clayton, and if you haven’t checked him out by now, I’d highly encourage you to go jump into his two albums: Long Way From Home and Blue Sky Sundays. That is… after you press play on the the latest episode of the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast.
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Cheers, y’all.
