Clayton Doley is an Australian musician, singer, songwriter, television musical director, arranger, and record producer best known for hisHammond Organ virtuosity. He started his own bands The Hands and Clayton Doley's Organ Donors.
At 16 he joinedAdelaide blues band Double Whammy[1] and at 18 he joined Sydney band The Mighty Reapers.[2]
In 2002 Clayton and his brotherLachlan Doley formed soul band The Hands, driven by the duelling keyboards of Clayton on Hammond Organ and Lachlan on Hohner D6 Clavinet. The Hands have recorded two albums of original songs, "Live and Breathe" in 2004 and "Everything Is Wonderful"[3] in 2008.
In 2006 Clayton Doley's Organ Donors was formed with longtime friends and fellow musiciansJak Housden on guitar (Badloves), James Haselwood on bass, and Dave Hibbard (also from The Hands) on drums. They regularly performed on the Australian festival circuit and have been referred to as Australia's answer toBooker T and the MG's.[4] In 2010 Clayton Doley's Organ Donors released the instrumental album onSundazed calledTension.[citation needed]
In 2012 Doley released his debut album as a solo artist,Desperate Times, an organ trio album recorded in Canada. The organ trio known as The Clayton Doley Organ Experience held down a successful residency gig at the Orbit Room in Toronto and performed mainly in Canada and Australia.[citation needed]
In 2015 Doley released his second album as a solo artist calledBayou Billabong.[citation needed] The album was recorded in both New Orleans, Louisiana, and Sydney, Australia, with past and present members ofJon Cleary (musician)'s band, The Absolute Monster Gentlemen as the rhythm section. It also features marching band brass from The Treme Funktet with members of Galactic and Trombone Shorty's Orleans Avenue. Australian backing vocalists Mahalia Barnes, Jade MacRae and Juanita Tippins (The Clay-Tones) feature heavily throughout and also appearing is didgeridoo player Ganga Giri and Canadian lap slide guitar player Harry Manx.[5] In the week of its release,Bayou Billabong made it to Number 1 both in the iTunes Blues Charts and the US Roots Music Report Blues Chart and stayed in the Australian Blues and Roots Airplay Charts six months after its release.[citation needed]
As a songwriter Doley has had his works recorded byThe Whitlams,[6]Jimmy Barnes,[7]Mahalia Barnes,[8]Jade MacRae,Ngaiire andKara Grainger. He has produced tracks for Jimmy Barnes' platinum sellingDouble Happiness album[7] andJade MacRae's ARIA award-winning self-titled debut.Doley is credited with writing string arrangements as well as co-producingHarry Manx's 2017 releaseFaith Lift.[9]
In 2023 he was credited with writing string arrangements forIan Moss's new album.[citation needed]
As a recording session musician Clayton is most often credited as playing the Hammond Organ and is sometimes listed as Clayton Dooley. He also performs on a wide variety of keyboard instruments and has been credited with playing piano, wurlitzer, rhodes, clavinet and mellotron.[citation needed]
He has played on albums for artists such asHarry Manx,[10]A Camp[11]Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges,[12]Jimmy Barnes,[13]The Whitlams,[14]Troy Cassar-Daley,[15]James Blundell,[16]Jackie Orszaczky,[17]Mahalia Barnes,[18]Jade Macrae,[citation needed]Kevin Borich,[19] and theStarlite Campbell Band.[20]
Doley played keyboards for theNetflix original animated seriesBeat Bugs released in 2016.IMDb lists him for all 26 episodes.[21][better source needed]
As a live session musician, Clayton has played forSteve Cropper andDonald "Duck" Dunn from Booker T and The MG's,Larry Braggs andDavid Garibaldi from Tower of Power,[22]The Divinyls,[23]Nigel Kennedy,[24]Eugene "Hideaway" Bridges[25]
As has worked as a television musical director for such shows asGood News Week[26] broadcast on Network 10,The Sideshow broadcast on the ABC network,Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) Opening Night Gala 2009 and 2010 broadcast on Network 10 and musical director for The Great Debate 2011 broadcast on Network 10.[citation needed]
Doley was musical director forJimmy Webb's 2018 tour of Australia, where he performed with an orchestra as well as special guests.[citation needed]
