Beyond the Groove & TMVOA: Final Music on the Green Concert with JD Clayton, 9/6!

04 Sep Beyond the Groove & TMVOA: Final Music on the Green Concert with JD Clayton, 9/6!

Beyond the Groove Productions and the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association (TMVOA) co-host the 2024 Music on the Green Concert. The series regularly takes place on Reflection Plaza in Mountain Village, adjacent to the Madeline Hotel & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection. The FREE Music on the Green summer concerts, which occurs every Friday, June 7 – September 6, 5 – 7 p.m., is thanks to sponsors TMVOA; Madeline Hotel & Residences, Auberge Collection; Telluride Ski & Golf; and the Town of Mountain Village.

To learn more about Music on the Green, contact the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association (TMVOA) at (970) 728-1904 or visit tmvoa.org and facebook.com/BeyondTheGroove.

Music on the Green is free of charge thanks to presenting sponsor TMVOA, along with Madeline Hotel, Residences, Telluride Ski & Golf, and the Town of Mountain Village.

Go here to learn more about Beyond the Groove Productions.

Go here to learn more about TMVOA

Scroll down for a taste of the upcoming and FINAL concert featuring JD Clayton.

JD Clayton, courtesy Beyond the Groove.

JD Clayton is the epitome of a Real Deal. There’s no artifice surrounding the Arkansas-born singer and songwriter. No glitz. No pretension or mythology. Instead, there is a refreshing lack of gratuitous posturing or creative conceit. Clayton is simply a guy who has things to say and does so clearly and without clutter — but with an earnest and tuneful sensibility that makes listening to his songs on his new album, Long Way From Home, as easy as sitting in the cool breeze on your front porch.

Clayton’s songs have a directness and clarity that are the hallmarks of a genuine craftsman. He is clearly someone who has studied and practiced and chased a few different paths to end up where he is now. And it’s not without grand ambition, either; Clayton sings in “American Millionaire” that “I’m workin’ my way to be one of the greats.”

And the man fully understands the diligence and dedication it will take to get there.

Clayton’s musical journey began in Fort Smith, Ark., a town known for its true grit, resting on the banks of the Arkansas river and peering over into the farmlands of eastern Oklahoma. A place where the new south meets the old west.

Clayton’s father worked in real estate before becoming a pastor when the oldest of his three children, JD, was starting high school. But Clayton was already well-indoctrinated into music by then. His grandfather played banjo in a bluegrass band and taught him some rudimentary chords; his father could pick a few chords too:

“He would sit there trying to learn Jack Johnson songs from a guitar tab book while ‘In Between Dreams’ played from a junky CD/Cassette player.”

Dad gave Clayton a guitar when he was just eight, though it would be a few years before playing took.

As with so many artists, the pandemic was the worst of times. But Clayton managed to turn into the best of times, musically at least.

The coffee shop where JD was working at shut down, so he signed on with a landscape company to work on heavy commercial and residential projects:

“I would be in the back of the truck driving with the crew from job to job. I would throw in my headphones and try to write a song or I would listen to old albums from top to bottom. I constantly listened to The Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. I was so enamored by the production choices and musicality of those records. I really think I began to develop an ear for that sound.”