Clayton celebrates the land and music that raised him, and the joy in his growing family.
No, not that JD. Singer-songwriter JD Clayton has returned for his sophomore album twinged with a little more blues sound and a lot of new changes in his life since returning to his hometown of Fort Smith.
Following his first album, ‘Long Way From Home’, and the birth of his second daughter, Clayton has echoed the changes in his life and looked in the rearview mirror. What follows is a Heartland scavenger hunt of musical influences and a red-dirt portrait of growing up in Arkansas.
A Dylanesque organ in the opening track, ‘Let You Down’ sets the scene: this album is a celebration to the music Clayton grew up with. His covers of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Mississippi Kid’ (now ‘Arkansas Kid’ on here) and Tracy Chapman’s ‘Give Me One Reason’ harken back to his early days of busking in Nashville, now as souvenirs of his resilience. Whatever the song, Clayton commemorates his influence. “Old man river keeps on rolling” in ‘High Hopes & Low Expectations’ and on ‘Dance Another Dance’, “Sunday morning church bells ring out again”.
Where one might typically fault an artist for a reliance on cliches, the lyrics in ‘Blue Sky Sundays’ appear integral to Clayton’s story. He may whip out the line “turn frowns upside-down” in ‘Let You Down’, yet one can’t help but feel his sincerity. In an industry that runs on trends and reinventions, Clayton has managed to capture his own truth in songwriting.
It’s delightful to learn that ‘Dance Another Dance’ was partly inspired by a family member’s relationship. “People keep talking ‘bout how much I love you / I’m so sorry it took so long to believe it’s true”, Clayton sings, from the perspective of a former colleague falling in love with Clayton’s cousin, which he eventually performed at their wedding. ‘Dirt Roads of Red’ seems like a set of questions lifted from a childhood journal – questions that Clayton no doubt would have wondered as the son of a reverend.
For a sophomore album, Clayton is sticking to his roots. He may venture out more in the future towards more experimental sounds, but for now, it is more than enough to sit back and bask in all the blessings of the past couple of years. Gratitude seeps throughout the entire album as Clayton sings with clarity and peace, at only 29 years old. It is exceedingly rare to hear an artist that sounds this seasoned and tranquil in such an early stage of his signed career.
