“One morning I was playing golf with a buddy from Georgia down at McCabe Golf Course in Nashville when he turned to me and said that there should be a song about wishing that the streets of gold in Heaven could be streets of Red, referring to the red clay down in Georgia,” remembers Arkansan singer-songwriter JD Clayton. Wheels turning, Clayton went home, picked up his guitar, and finished writing his new single “Dirt Roads of Red” in under an hour.

Songwriter, guitarist, and soulful singer JD Clayton is wholly a product of his environment. A product of being raised in Arkansas, the literal son of a preacher man, Clayton returned to his home of Fort Smith after grinding it out in Nashville for a few years and re-immersed himself in the community and landscape that shaped him into the artist he is today; down-to-earth, deliberately unhurried, and touched with a carefree ease that’s undeniably infectious.

Since Arkansas native JD Clayton released his critically acclaimed debut, Long Way From Home, the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist has been honing his soulful delivery the old-school way: by playing shows on the road. “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,” says Clayton, whose tour has taken him from small rock clubs and country dance halls to major festival stages like Bonnaroo.

Independent singer/songwriter JD Clayton will release his debut full length album Long Way From Home on January 27th, 2023. Following the September release of his Side A EP and multiple talked-about appearances at this year’s AmericanaFest in Nashville, the Arkansas native is building a strong foundation that this 10-song offering will continue to solidify. Listen to the moving title track HERE.