JD Clayton evokes recognition and nostalgia with his new album ‘Blue Sky Sundays’
With equal parts soulful self-reflection and wildly colorful storytelling, Blue Sky Sundays immediately transports the audience into a world that moves at its own exhilarating rhythm—and ultimately reveals an artist of hard-won character and singular authenticity.
A native son of Arkansas, JD Clayton delivers a timeless form of country-rock that’s wholly the product of his environment: down-to-earth, deliberately unhurried, touched with a carefree ease that’s undeniably infectious. After several years spent grinding it out in Nashville—and kicking off a career that’s included touring alongside the likes of Dwight Yoakam, Old Crow Medicine Show, Parker McCollum, and more—the Fort Smith-bred singer/songwriter returned to his hometown and immersed himself in the making of an adventurous new album that soon led to his signing with Rounder Records.
“I’m always inspired by music made in the ’70s, when there wasn’t so much of a focus on getting everything exactly perfect,” says Clayton. “Life is crazy and it’s got a lot of blemishes, and I believe that music should too. These songs all came from us locking ourselves in the studio and really having fun with the songs, and I think that’s the heart of the album.”
In choosing a title for Blue Sky Sundays, Clayton looked to a lyric in “Slow & Steady” that echoes the joyful sense of clarity he’s experienced since moving back to Fort Smith after the birth of the first of his two daughters. “It’s essentially a line about wanting to bring happiness to someone else, which feels like it represents what I want to do with my music these days,” he says. “For me there’s a few albums I always know I can throw on whenever I’m feeling down, that instantly bring me back to a happier time in my life—to me that’s the biggest and best possible form of nostalgia. There’s so much sadness in the world lately, so hopefully this album will have that same power to turn someone’s day around in just a couple of seconds.”
