JD Clayton is back with more music, and his latest single is an absolute force
Clayton’s latest single “Arkansas Kid” will melt your face off sonically and have you tapping your foot in no time. And if it feels like a full blown southern rock tune that could have originated in Lynyrd Skynyrd-era Jacksonville, Florida in the 1970s, that’s because the song is actually an interpolation of a Skynyrd hit, “Mississippi Kid” from their debut album Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd.
While he’s teased the swampy southern rock sound in his music previously, with songs like “American Millionaire,” this is the first time it seems like Clayton has fully embraced the southern rock sound to this extent on a song.
Rather than the Alabama vs. Mississippi rivalry in the original, Clayton changes the lyrics of the Ronnie Van Zant-penned tune to showcase his home state of Arkansas, and the “Arkansas Kid” shows us just how much he and his band are capable of with his version of the classic hit.
Give “Arkansas Kid” a listen here:
An Arkansas Kid himself, Clayton is a Fort Smith, AR native, and his music is heavily influenced by his experiences in the state.
A name that needs to be on every country music fan’s radar moving forward, Clayton likely has more new music in the works, and it’ll be interesting to see if his next project leans more to the southern rock side, his country singer/songwriter sensibilities, or if it walks the line somewhere in the middle.
Either way, Clayton is yet to disappoint, releasing heater after heater, and I don’t see why he’d stop now.
Clayton has been around for a little while now, having released his first single in 2018, but with his debut album Long Way From Home dropping in January 2022, Clayton truly showed the world what he was capable of.
With savvy songwriting and a knack for storytelling, and those awesome vocals to boot, JD Clayton has something special going on, and with plenty of solid momentum behind him, it’s just a matter of time until his career really takes off.
If you’re not too familiar with his music, check out some of my favorites from his catalog.
“Goldmine”
“Midnight Special”
“Beauty Queen”
“American Millionaire”
“This Old Guitar” (John Denver Cover)