Bio
Clayton is a piano-based singer/songwriter whose main inspiration is the 60s/70s pop he loved while growing up in the Motor City. He enjoys incorporating the best songwriting traditions of the past several decades into his music.
The World Songwriting Awards named Clayton’s tune River a Winter 2021 finalist for Best Song Music Production. River also picked up a 2022 W.A.M. Silver Award for Best Song in the Adult Contemporary category. LHMPR Radio called Clayton’s track One More Fairy Tale "Mellow and smooth with very touching lyrics".
Clayton’s songs sometimes tip the hat to Billy Joel, others make a nod to the the Fab Four, and some honor the Sinatra era.
His favorite social media platform is Instagram, where he posts regularly and can be found at @claytonjohnmusic. Highlights of Clayton’s YouTube channel — again called @claytonjohnmusic — include the music video for his latest single River. He considers that one “a video poem”.
Clayton has twice performed on the Bay Stage at the Solano County Fair, has done a one-man show at The Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, CA, and has sung at Bay Area venues including The Bazaar Cafe, the Red Devil Lounge, and The Hotel Utah. He once performed his own arrangement of the National Anthem with a small a cappella group from the pitcher’s mound at a San Francisco Giants game. Clayton's original music has also been played at the New Music in the Gallery concert series in downtown Chicago.
Once upon a time Clayton sat at the helm of the ten-foot Steinway in Nordstrom, where he was a regular pianist for several years. Starting in 2007 he received the ASCAP Plus Award for composition four years running. He is a graduate of Stanford University with an A.B. in Music with a concentration in Composition.
Clayton makes his home in Tulsa.
You can find his songs on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, and iHeartRadio.