Jake Clayton

The Girls Night Out Relay for Life of Audrain County team and Country 96 KWWR will host a benefit show featuring a night of music with the Jake Clayton Trio on Nov. 14 at the Mexico Elks Lodge.

Rob Daniels and Amanda McCoy will be joining the trio.

Clayton held a benefit show for the Relay for Life last year as well. In fact, he said that he loves coming back to Mexico and makes an effort to return at least twice a year. Most recently, the trio performed at the Soybean Festival.

“The folks of Mexico have always been great and turned out in droves to see us,” Clayton said.

The Clayton Show

Clayton plays anything with strings or keys.

Growing up, Clayton didn’t take music lessons. Instead, his learning tool was television. He would record live music specials on VHS tapes so he could watch them back, mimicking the musicians he looked up to.

He began his musical journey on the fiddle, which he calls “the master instrument,” and much of what he learned came from watching Garth Brooks’ fiddle player.

“The violin is the hardest instrument on the planet to play,” Clayton said. “If you can play the violin, you can pretty much do music.”

Now, Clayton plays a variety of instruments and when he’s in the studio recording a new song, he plays everything but the drums.

Television may have taught him how to play, but Claton’s appreciation for music began even earlier. He was raised in a very musical household. His parents, Jack and Brenda Clayton, were singers who formed an entertainment duo in Mexico called The Clayton Show.

“It was kind of like Karaoke before Karaoke was a thing,” Clayton said, adding that the crowd did not participate. “They had cassette tapes that were all of their backing tracks and they would go into places and sing pretty much all of the Top 40s material.”

While his parents had a big influence on his career, Clayton said Barbara Green, his music teacher at Eugene Field Elementary, was a big part of the reason he went into music.

“Whether she understands that she was or not, she made a huge impact on my life,” he said.

Clayton joined his first band, Headed South Bluegrass Band, in Mexico when he was 13 years old.

“I played all kinds of stuff – the Walk Back in Time, historical events that Mexico has up there by the Graceland Museum and stuff like that,” he said.

From there he began playing with a group out of Mark Twain Lake known as The Silver Dollar Band.

“I don’t like to limit myself to any one particular style of music,” Clayton said. “Living in Nashville, being a seasoned musician, I get asked to play on everything from something that’s going to be on country radio to — last year — we were doing Bollywood tracks for people in India.”

Next stop, Nashville

Clayton never went to Nashville looking for a job — it came to him.

After The Silver Dollar Band, Clayton was hired to be in a house band at a bar called Nashville North in Taylorville, Illinois.

“Nashville North would have country artists and touring acts that were on the radio and classic heritage people come in,” Clayton said, adding that it was a revolving door of performers and managers.

Show after show, the same managers would watch as Clayton played different instruments with numerous groups.

Before he knew it, managers were taking his card and calling him to Nashville.

“With the many different instruments I play, I hope I never stop receiving those calls,” Clayton said. “I moved here 18 years ago, and I’ve really never had a down day the whole time I’ve been here.”

Clayton said his brain has always worked differently, and he thinks of music like a computer would.

“When I’m listening to a song, I don’t just hear one part – I hear all of it,” Clayton said. “I’ve just always been fortunate to have a bird’s-eye view of music.”

And even though it took the managers in Nashville a little while to realize that, Clayton said they have since stopped putting blinders on him and just let him go.

Clayton continues progressing his music career in Nashville, playing what he wants and never limiting himself. He also tours regularly with a number of artists and even acts as a tour manager for close colleagues.

“Your music will find its audience,” he said. “Don’t try to just sit there and chase trends — write what resonates with you.”