Clayton Doley is an Australian musician, singer, songwriter, television musical director, arranger, and record producer best known for his
Hammond Organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
virtuosity. He started his own bands The Hands and Clayton Doley's Organ Donors.
Career
Bands
At 16 he joined
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
blues band Double Whammy and at 18 he joined Sydney band The Mighty Reapers.
In 2002 Clayton and his brother Lachlan 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" in 2008.
In 2006 Clayton Doley's Organ Donors was formed with longtime friends and fellow musicians Jak 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 to Booker T and the MG's. In 2010 Clayton Doley's Organ Donors released the instrumental album on Sundazed called ''Tension''.
Solo
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.
In 2015 Doley released his second album as a solo artist called ''Bayou Billabong''. The album was recorded in both New Orleans, Louisiana, and Sydney, Australia, with past and present members of
Jon Cleary (musician)
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The Whitlams
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,
Jimmy Barnes
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,
Mahalia Barnes
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, Jade MacRae, Ngaiire and Kara Grainger.
He has produced tracks for Jimmy Barnes' platinum selling Double Happiness album and Jade MacRae's ARIA award-winning self-titled debut.
Doley is credited with writing string arrangements as well as co-producing
Harry Manx
Harry Manx (born 1955) is a Canadian musician who blends blues, folk music, and Hindustani classical music. His official website describes his music as being a "blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and ...
's 2017 release ''Faith Lift''.
In 2023 he was credited with writing string arrangements for Ian Moss's new album.
Session musician
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.
He has played on albums for artists such as
Harry Manx
Harry Manx (born 1955) is a Canadian musician who blends blues, folk music, and Hindustani classical music. His official website describes his music as being a "blend Indian folk melodies with slide guitar blues, add a sprinkle of gospel and ...
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Barnes ( Swan; born 28 April 1956) is an Australian rock singer. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music a ...
,
The Whitlams
The Whitlams are an Australian Indie rock band formed in late 1992. The original line-up was Tim Freedman on keyboards and lead vocals, Andy Lewis on double bass and Stevie Plunder on guitar and lead vocals. Other than mainstay Freedman, the ...
,
Troy Cassar-Daley
Troy Cassar-Daley (born 18 May 1969) is an Australian country music songwriter and entertainer.
Cassar-Daley has released thirteen studio albums, two live albums and five compilation albums over 30 years, including the platinum-selling '' The ...
Mahalia Barnes
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Kevin Borich
Kevin Nicholas Borich (born 27 October 1948, Huapai, North Island, New Zealand) is a New Zealand-born Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was the mainstay of the La De Da's, the leader of Kevin Borich Express, and a founding member of ...
Netflix
Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...
original animated series '' Beat Bugs'' released in 2016.
IMDb
IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
lists him for all 26 episodes.
As a live session musician, Clayton has played for
Steve Cropper
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Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy (born 28 December 1956) is an English violinist and viola, violist.
His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and has since expanded into jazz music, jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.
Early life and ...
As has worked as a television musical director for such shows as ''Good News Week'' broadcast on Network 10, '' The Sideshow'' broadcast on the ABC network,
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...
(MICF) Opening Night Gala 2009 and 2010 broadcast on Network 10 and musical director for The Great Debate 2011 broadcast on Network 10.
Doley was musical director for
Jimmy Webb
Jimmy Layne Webb (born August 15, 1946) is an American songwriter, composer, and singer. He achieved success at an early age, winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the age of 21. During his career, he established himself as one of Am ...
's 2018 tour of Australia, where he performed with an orchestra as well as special guests.