30 Jun Music on the Green: JD Clayton Featured on July 4th Celebration!
Beyond the Groove Productions and the Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association (TMVOA) co-host the 2025 Music on the Green concerts. The series regularly takes place on Reflection Plaza in Mountain Village, adjacent to the Madeline Hotel & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection.
The FREE concerts occurs every Friday, May 30– September 19, 5 – 7 p.m., 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.
And please scroll down to learn more about Denise Mongan’s act for the Telluride region’s July 4th celebration- none other than J.D. Clayton. (Below is thanks to his label, Rounder/Concord Records.)
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. 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.
JD Clayton, image, courtesy Jesse de Florio.
The follow-up to his critically praised 2023 debut Long Way From Home, Blue Sky Sundays finds Clayton taking the helm as producer and working with his touring band to capture the vitality and grit of his crowd-thrilling live show.
“When I made my first album I’d never been on the road, but after touring so much over the past few years my band is extremely dialed-in,” said Clayton, whose live experience includes performing at major festivals like Bonnaroo and Dreamy Draw as well as opening for artists like Hank Williams Jr., Charles Wesley Godwin, Brent Cobb, and Ashley McBryde. “I wanted to make a record that showcased what’s special about each of my bandmates, and I knew the best way to do that was to produce it myself.” Recorded at the legendary Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville and mixed by seven-time Grammy Award winner Vance Powell (Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton), Blue Sky Sundays ornaments its free-flowing sound with plenty of ear-catching sonic details (including an abundance of explosive guitar solos), each crafted with a thoughtful spontaneity. “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,” Clayton added. “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.”
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