Jeff Dayton is a musician.

He’s a guy who loves his family. He speaks lovingly of his mother and grandmother, stays close with his siblings, talks about his friends and pays close attention to the world around him. He is a self-described optimist.

He’s been around a long time, but it’s hard to guess his age. He is youthful and open and is tuned in to today’s world.

He knows early Rolling Stones songs, is hip to playing Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, songs by The Band. He is a guy of his era, but he has plenty going on in the 21st century.

Dayton, a former Fountain Hills resident, now lives in Nashville, where he spends plenty of time with his music – playing and writing songs. He has moved away from rock ‘n’ roll and in to country, but that switch isn’t a stretch.

He is, after all, a musician.

“I was kind of the token folkie in college (bands),” he said. “We played (Lynard) Skynard, (Led) Zeppelin, The Band, (Bob) Dylan. But I really liked playing Poco and other country-rock.”

Dayton grew up in Minnesota in a musical family.

“Somebody was always singing or playing records,” he said. “We all just loved music.”

Dayton has taken that passion on the road -- literally, spending 15 years with Glen Campbell as his band manager, touring with Kenny Chesney and Lee Greenwood and getting around as a solo artist.

And while he loves the road, he also loves songwriting. He devotes a lot of time to that craft and has enjoyed success with people like George Strait and Sarah Darling singing his songs.

“I love songwriting,” he said. “My family was also pretty literary. We all loved to read. My grandmother was a serious reader. So was my mom. I am a student of language. I am serious about writing well.”

So serious, in fact, Dayton goes so far as to rewrite Facebook messages before he posts them.

“I want to have some sense to the things I post online,” he said. “Being correct is important to me. It is part of who I am. As minor as it may seem, I think being correct everywhere sets a good example.”

Dayton has a method to his madness in writing well. In addition to his songwriting, he is toying with the idea of a writing a novel. He has “tons of notes, observations, conversations, things I’ve seen” that he might work in to a book. Or maybe a song. Or maybe a poem. Or maybe he’ll just hang on to it because he likes it.

One thing he won’t be writing about is trucks.

“Country music now seems to have taken a single path to trucks,” Dayton said. “It’s pretty sad.”

So his intent is to write human stories, to find something nobody else has said, but that everyone else can relate to.

“The point is to make a song so everybody gets it,” he said.

Dayton has been writing with a number of other songwriters, most recently with Mark D. Sanders, a hit-maker from Nashville.

Sanders has won a Grammy for the Best Country Song of the Year, along with the Academy of Country Music Song of the Year for “I Hope You Dance,” recorded by Lee Ann Womack. He also has had 14 number 1 singles and is the recipient of numerous other songwriting awards.

“He is a really talented guy,” Dayton said. “I am so honored to have worked with him.”

Dayton is like that. He appreciates every opportunity he has in the business.

“I have been so blessed,” he said. “I have amazing people in my life, I have traveled and seen wonderful places and gotten to do really cool stuff. I am happy.”

Entertaining and creating songs make him happy, but they might not be quite enough for the Minnesota native.

He also teaches songwriting and music. He works with school kids to create songs of their own at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. He took a group of fourth and fifth graders through the complete songwriting experience, including recording and performing.

He has found another creative outlet: television.

He was in a couple of episodes of ABC’s Nashville last year, and he is appearing for the second time on Hawaii Five-O in episode 9 (he was on episode 1, but he was just a dead guy in that, so it wasn’t much of a role). In episode 9, he’s a live Secret Service agent with a couple of lines.

Jeff Dayton has a lot going on, to be sure. And he is more than happy to share all of it with his friends.

Jeff Dayton will be in Arizona for a 10-day tour, which includes an appearance at the Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. Tickets for the event, which are available at the church, 13001 N. Fountain Hills Blvd., are $12 each.

He will be joined by his daughter, Carrie, who grew up in Fountain Hills. She also is a singer-songwriter. Carrie lives in Maine.

Dayton has other shows scheduled in the Valley and in Sedona as well. Visit www.jeffdaytonmusic.com for more dates.