Clay was born in 1958 in Oak Cliff (south Dallas) Texas. At the age of 9 he bought his older brother, Mark's, acoustic guitar and later that summer he took guitar lessons from Clyde Boyd, who taught Clay how to play and sing at the same time.  Clay’s love for rhythm, blues and rock and roll came from riding around in the back of his older brothers’ and sister’s car in the early 60’s and 70’s.
Clay’s first recording studio experience was with his brother, Kirk, at Trinity University’s Radio, TV/Film Dept…Clay was 13 at the time. With Kirk’s help, and Sterling Productions, Clay released his first album in 1977. The album was recorded at Crystal Clear Recording Studio in Dallas, TX and mastered in Nashville, TN.
His next project was an album named “12x12” in 1979 with KZEW Radio. The theme of the album was “12 Dallas bands playing 12 of their best songs” after a city-wide competition of bands. At that time he was introduced to Ken Topalsky (a producer from Los Angeles) to record a new demo at the record plant in Los Angeles, CA in 1983. This single included two songs, “Dreamin” and “I Can’t Stand It” (BMI) and was engineered by Lee DeCarlo (John Lennon’s engineer).
Then and Now” is Clay’s most recent album, recorded in late 2012 and released in 2013. This album provides a compilation of some of his older original songs along with his newest song creations. Each song was produced by Clay and performed by a fantastic group of musicians while being recorded at Keith Harter Music Studios in San Antonio, TX. Recording History
His first live TV appearance was at the Agora Ballroom for the American Heart Association in 1977. His band played 90 minutes of all original rock, rhythm and blues. The segment aired a number of times through CUBE TV in Dallas and the surrounding areas in the late 70’s and early 80’s.Television
The Clay Jarvis Band played the local Dallas, Greenville Avenue scene, jammin’ in the garage with Stevie Ray Vaughn, opening at Nick’s for Muddy Waters and riding for 10 days with Johnny Winter on his Texas Tour, which got Clay’s musical juices flowing. That was when he realized that being a singer, song-writer, performer was the most important part of his music.
“I believe that song-writing is powerful stuff”, says Clay, “and that there should always be a message”. 
Later in his career as a studio guitarist, he worked on numerous albums for other artists. Clay was an all-original opening act for Three Dog Night, George Benson, Ray Wiley Hubbard and the Marshall Tucker Band. He has entertained for the Dallas Grand Prix and has played all over the US, including Alaska and Hawaii.
In the last few years Clay has performed as a solo artist or with his band and others in the south Texas area. Venues include:
Sam’s Burger Joint • Shade Tree Saloon & Grill • Barriba’s Cantina • Oma’s Secret Garden • Sunset Station • Hyatt Riverwalk
With a 20+ year break from performing and 3 kids later, he is playing live again. He won the King of the Blues 2010 contest (San Antonio division) for the Guitar Center and soon after joined the San Antonio Blues Society.
This kick-started Clay into writing and performing again and the result was his “Then and Now” album.
Clay seeks out jam nights, open mic nights and other opportunities to perform and collaborate with musicians all over Texas.

April E. Jarvis