User:SwampGuy/sandbox

"Swamp" Guy Kayton (born Guy Douglas Kayton 28 December 1956) is an American folk, rock, country and blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, watercolor artist, and all around swamp guy. He was born in Portsmouth, Virginia but grew up in the little section of Chesapeake, Virginia known as Deep Creek. Deep Creek abutted the Great Dismal Swamp and the Kayton's owned more swamp than they did uplands. He is best known for his songwriting with deep, dark and depressing lyrics and writing about events that have great impact on him like Hurricane Katrina. This can be found in his best known song Black-Eyed Moon.

Early life
Growing up in Deep Creek, Virginia and living in the swamp, Swamp Guy trapped muskrats and chased water moccasins out of the yard as a young kid. He was influenced early on by his mother’s love for music where he heard a lot Ray Charles, Engelbert Humperdinck, Louis Armstrong and Glen Campbell. His father having a love for the unusual, listen to artist like the Ink Spots. It was not until his high school years when music became a big part of his life, seeing almost every artist who came to the Tidewater, Virginia area. High school friends, Steve, Barry, and Paul among others, turn Swamp Guy on too many new artist, from Foghat to Little Feat. It was during this time he saw the likes of the Allman Brothers, Doc Watson, ZZ Top, The Eagles, The Who, Jackson Browne, Bad Company, Jethro Tull, The Beach Boys, Electric Light Orchestra, Rod Stewart, Yes, Alice Cooper, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bruce Springsteen, Taj Mahal, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and even Andres Segovia, to name a few. But it was the first time Swamp Guy saw John Prine that greatly influenced him and his desire to want to write songs. It was not until he went to college at James Madison University that he bought his first guitar and took his first guitar lesson.

Music
During the 1980s Swamp Guy began writing and was influenced by the rise in popular country music. Spending much of the summer on Cape Hatteras influenced the writing of songs like "I Wish I Was A Pirate". After his grandfather gave him a hat that his grandfather had purchased from J.C. Penny some 30 years before, that Swamp wrote "Grandpa's Hat". This is the hat worn in the picture to the right and is now some 60+ years old. During the 80s and 90s he continued to write but only a few songs stuck around like "That's My Boy" after his first son was born. In the late 90's he moved to North Carolina where life side tracked his writing and Swamp put away his guitar for a few years.

The move north was the start of serious music development. Before moving to New Hampshire in 2003, Swamp Guy had not picked up a guitar in years. One month after moving north he was driving down the road and heard a Greg Brown song on the radio. What radio station plays music like Greg Brown (folk musician) and Chris Smither? It was [WUMB]. It did not take long after starting to listen to WUMB that Swamp Guy road out one day and bought a new guitar. He was immediately starting to write again. Within a year he was taking guitar lessons and began taking classes at Berklee College of Music. The lyric writing classes at Berklee really pumped the Swamp and his songwriting took on a whole new level with songs like Odd Fellows Hall and Black-Eyed Moon. This Intense period of song writing lead to ...From there it was on to open mic at Tupelo Music Hall where along with songwriting buddy Joe Messineo that Swamp Guy began to perform.

In 2016 Swamp Guy's first album, Everything Must Go, was release by CDBaby. The album cover is a takeoff of George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass. The album was recorded on GarageBand in his basement, referred to as the dungeon, with Swamp playing all instrumentation. The following year with the release of his second album, The Tame, the Guilty and the Dirt Road Scuffle, Swamp Guy saw much interest his songwriting and music.

Personal life
Swamp Guy is married and has three sons currently living in New Hampshire.

Discography

 * Everything Must Go (2016)
 * 'The Tame the Guilty and the Dirt Road Scuffle' (2017)
 * Just The Same (2017) Single