Jesse Dayton is an American, Austin, Texas-based Americana artist, best known for his guitar contributions to albums by country musicians including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. He is also notable for his collaborations with horror film directorRob Zombie, who has commissioned Dayton on multiple occasions to record music to accompany his films.
Career
Dayton was born in Beaumont, Texas, where he was raised on the music of George Jones, Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell, all the while harboring an affinity for the spirit of punk with bands like the Clash. After touring with two rockabilly bands, the Road Kings and the Alamo Jets, Dayton ventured off into solo territory, recording his Americana-chart-topping record Raisin' Cain. With Lucinda Williams Dayton performed at Bill Clinton's second inaugural ball. Since then Dayton has released several different solo albums and worked with a variety of country rock artists, most notably Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash on Right for the Time after Jennings injured his picking thumb and required a guitar stand-in. Dayton also contributed guitarwork on albums by the Supersuckers and Kris Kristofferson. In 2004, horror film director Rob Zombie commissioned Jesse Dayton to record an album for the fictional characters Banjo & Sullivan from his sophomore feature The Devil's Rejects. The resulting album was a collection of tongue-in-cheek honky-tonk country entitled . In Zombie's Halloween II, Dayton performs as the lead singer and guitarist of the fictional psychobilly band Captain Clegg & the Night Creatures. He released an album entitled Rob Zombie presents Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures on August 28, same day as the film Halloween II premiered. In 2014 he toured with John Doe both as the opening act and a member of Doe's backing band. In 2015 Dayton played guitar in the bandX on their US tour, filling in for Billy Zoom who had been diagnosed with cancer. In 2016 he again toured with John Doe as well being the opener on the Supersuckers European and US tours. On September 16, 2016, he released his ninth album titled The Revealer on his Hardcharger Records imprint through Blue Élan Records.
