The son of Jon Appleton. In 2014/2015, Appleton teamed up with Grammy Award-winning harmonica player and singer Jason Ricci to record an Acoustic blues album entitled "Dirty Memory", which Appleton also produced. Hailed as "keeping the tradition of Piedmont blues alive" and "a killer, wild man of a set that almost sounds like early Holy Modal Rounders played straight", the album spent 10 weeks on the Roots Music Report's Top 50 Acoustic Blues Albums chart. Six of the tracks from "Dirty Memory" dominated the Top 10 Acoustic Blues Singles chart in the autumn of 2015, and in November 2015 "Dirty Memory" was given the 2015 Jimi Award for "best new artist debut" by Blues 411.Appleton is one of the founding members of the popular New York based band The Grasshoppers along with Mario Joachim and David Hamburger. The Grasshoppers, who counted among their fans Paul McCartney, Jeff Buckley and the conductor Seiji Ozawa, havebeen described in reviews as "One of the most influential and melodic rock / pop bands on the New York City Scene in the mid 1990s". He has composed and performed music fornumerous television programs and films, including Jungle Junction, Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America, PBS's P.O.V., The Wire, 'The Sopranos, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Real World Cancun, Real World Washington DC, The Regis and Kathie Lee Show, and Lizzie McGuire.