BethAnne Clayton To Perform At Hot Summer Night Concert

BethAnne Clayton is bringing Nashville to Summit. She and her six-piece band will play new country hits, old country classics and original music tonight on the Village Green, the final performance in the Hot Summer Night's Concert Series. Clayton was originally set to perform July 13 but the performance was rescheduled due to weather.

Clayton describes her style as a mix of Tricia Yearwood, Martina McBride, Faith Hill and Patsy Cline. She covers those artists, as well as Melissa Ethridge, the Judds, Jimmy Buffett and Sheryl Crow, among others, and about a quarter of her set is original music. She often performs with a guitar player and a drummer, but she's pulling out all the stops for Summit and bringing two guitar players, a drummer, a bassist, a keyboard and a peddle steel ("It really gives it that country flavor," she said). Clayton even met her husband, Steve Paddock, when she brought him in to replace her old drummer.

"We played together for about a year before I made him marry me," she joked.

Clayton recently won the Colgate Country Music Showdown at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, which qualifies her for a regional competition in Massachusetts in October. But her home base is McCloone's Restaurants, where she plays weekly shows. She's been there for eight years, ever since she began volunteering for owner Tim McCloone's charity Holiday Express, which plays free shows and does volunteer work for children's hospitals, soup kitchens and homeless shelters. In 2009, Holiday Express played 52 shows between Thanksgiving and Christmas, often with over 60 volunteers and musicians per event.

Music has always been a part of Clayton's life. Her father played accordion with Sons of the Purple Sage, who toured with the Lone Ranger. But she says she got into country music by chance.

"There was a lot of early 90s pop stuff that I wasn't really into," she said. "Then I heard a country song on WYNY and just fell in love."

She had her first performance in 1991, at Mickey Mantle's in Central Park, live on-air on WYNY, New York City's former country music station. After a baptism by fire like that, big crowds can't scare Clayton.

"I'd rather have a big crowd," she said. "Outdoor concerts (like Summit's) are the best kind of shows. People are there because they want to be, they want to hear music, and I love singing outside."

Clayton is the second performer in Summit's Hot Summer Night Concert Series. Investors Savings Bank is the presenting sponsor, and Otterstedt Insurance and PNC Bank are premium sponsors. Each of the four shows -every Tuesday evening in July- are free, and there will be food and giveaways. The city of Summit took over the series in 2008. Clayton's three CDs are available for purchase on her Web site.