Profile:
Jamestown Revival

Jonathon Clay and Zach Chance are two grown-up boys on the run. The members of indie/country/rock band Jamestown Revival are a pair of soulful, down-to-earth buddies whose secret to friendship involves sharing meals over the dinner table.

The band’s ongoing, transcendental narrative is the biography behind their sound. They describe their genre as “first and foremost Americana,” a blend of southern and coastal motifs. Their own, self-generated image is informed by their adventures and experiences: moving from Texas to L.A. after the conception of the band, spending time in the Rocky Mountains, and also recording their new album, Utah. And now, being on tour, they’re expanding their Americana palette to the East Coast and Midwest.

Chance perfectly describes the New York prerogative: “In the city that never sleeps, you’ve gotta burn the midnight oil.” The two have distinct perspectives towards the places they go and the way they live. They naturally emit a sense of soul and southern vibrancy, looking at everything with the eyes of complacent wanderers.

These experiences integrate themselves into Jamestown Revival’s music; Clay refers to their time in the Rockies as a conduit for “feeling so small that you start thinking about bigger picture things.” Although he says that they don’t directly write about these experiences, how he described it made me imagine a well of nostalgia and peaceful memories used as resources and tools for future songs.

When asked what they hoped their audience would get out of the album, their answers were eclectic and varied as if their responses were images that have followed them through every recording and show. In Zach’s words, “Hopefully it takes you to the place where you grew up, or to the first time you had an adventure that made you uncomfortable.” He describes the song “California (Cast Iron Soul)” as the epitome of this idea, a profession of the mystery of their new life in L.A. They both touched on the topic of leaving home and finding oneself “in a place that’s bigger than [anything] you’ve ever been before.”

The two musicians, who wrote their first song together at the age of 15, want their audience to understand the honesty and simplicity of their album in the midst of the modern music industry’s clamor. Songs like “Medicine” are quiet and resonate through each click of finger on string.

The song “Home,” which was actually written in the Wasatch Mountains as Clay and Chance were passing time in the recording of Utah, is a perfect summit to the album: it tells us what they’ve been through so far, and where they’ve been.

Music seems visceral to their existence—like an obvious truth. They grew up listening to Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, and James Taylor, always in the company of music. And they’ve known since a young age; when they created their first song, Jon woke his mom up in the night to tell her: “We’re going to be musicians.” As clever, easygoing and talented as they are, the music world should have no problem with that humble association.

The band will be playing at the Majestic tomorrow night, opening for The Wild Feathers.