HOUSTON, TX (Top40 Charts) Ask any of the thousands of fans who've been energized this past year by the Clay Melton Band's (www.claymeltonband.com) high octane shows throughout their home state of Texas, and they'll usually use names like
John Mayer and
Foo Fighters to describe their explosive vibe. But dig deeper into Clay's musical journey and you'll hit on that classic moment at age 11 when he heard Jimi Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower" and his world quickly changed.
Influenced further by Vaughan,
Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, Clay was being hailed as a young master blues guitarist by his mid-teens. The Dallas International Guitar Festival proclaimed Clay "one of the TOP 10 Guitar
Players in
Texas under 20 years old!" after his performance brought down the house.
More recently, Clay Melton Band has received phenomenal feedback on their new EP from industry greats such as Grammy winning producer Jared Lee Gosselin (Velvet Revolver, Frank Zappa, Macy Gray) who said, "This kid is a force of nature!"
Also a Grammy-winning producer, Joel Soyffer (Joe Cocker, Doobie Brothers, Aloe Blacc) mixed and mastered the EP at Coney Island Studios.
Now well past the "teenage sensation" stage, 22-year-old Clay and his group, Clay Melton Band -- featuring drummer Zach Grindle and bassist Raymon Minton -- have developed a guitar driven pop-influenced alt-rock style that draws dynamically on his blistering
Texas blues influences.
For those who haven't seen The Clay Melton Band live in concert, the trio created a fiery in studio performance video for "Home" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIZDNqNHYCk), which is currently being promoted to Triple A
Radio nationwide via Twin Vision Promotions.
Other tracks from the self-titled EP include "Remember," which Clay penned at 17 and is the set's representative "breakup song," addressing our tendency to feed frustration rather than address real problems. "Stop & Listen" is a harmony laden power ballad tapping into the part of a relationship where one partner comes to the conclusion that he or she just doesn't have the same desire anymore. In the song, Clay urges us to "Stop and listen to the soft sound of love, running away/So quiet in its escape/Then one day you wake/There's nothing inside."
The music videos for "
Tonight" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OqqbgQuYcc) and "Home" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIZDNqNHYCk) were recorded at SugarHill Studios in
Houston owned by Dan Workman (ZZ Top, Beyonce) who said, "I've had the privilege of watching Clay evolve from a gifted intuitive guitarist to a complete performer and songwriter. He has managed the hardest of Tasks: crafting a musical identity that lives up to the promise of a precocious talent."
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Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIZDNqNHYCk
