“Jamestown Revival is more than music. It’s an idea, and it’s a movement. It’s grass roots, and it’s back porch. Our strength is in numbers, but our individuality is ever present. We appreciate the simpler things, and we know where we came from. We value timelessness over trendiness, and quality over quantity. We are Revivalists…”
So reads the band’s description on their YouTube page, and during a nearly hour-long midday set at Stagecoach’s Palomino Stage on Saturday, Jamestown Revival proved that their blend of southern country, Americana and rock is stirring a movement.
“Wow.” “Killing it.” “Unreal.”
Those were just a few examples of the praise that quickly found its way to the twitter universe, along with some live streams on Periscope.
Zach Chance and Jonathan Clay became friends at age 14 in their hometown of Magnolia, Texas. By 15, they had written their first song together, but it wasn’t until years later when the then-college roommates got serious about making music as a duo. But eventually, while spending time on Texas ranch land owned by Clay’s family, the pair sat out on an old back porch with guitar and keyboard and started to write music.
“We wrote them with a different mindset, with a duo mindset, and they were built around harmony and they just had a different vibe. That was really the start of Jamestown. It started that day,” Clay said in an interview with windupmagazine.com.
The childhood friends borrowed their band name from the Jamestown settlement in Virginia, with the idea in mind to leave behind the old and head out on an adventure. (They also note Credence Clearwater Revival as a huge influence.) So they took their dream and headed west to Los Angeles, where they found inspiration for the songs that appear on debut album Utah.
Its track “California (Cast Iron Soul)” earned an immediate and hearty reaction from the audience, which led quickly to a clap, sing and stomp-along from the Stagecoach crowd.
California, I don’t even know you.
You’ve taken me away from home.
Old Magnolia I’ll never get over you.
The feelings running straight to my bones.
Someday I’ll be coming home.
Someday I’ll be coming home.
With a cast iron soul.
The boys did return home, or close to it, anyhow. After recording Utah, (named after the cabin in Utah’s Wasatch mountains where they made the album), JR would eventually opt to move to Austin, about 200 miles away from Magnolia.
JR also paid tribute to home during their Stagecoach set with a “song they wrote about the good ol’ boys” called “Head On” that saw them working the stage and at times, sharing a mic to blend their voices, which only added to the communal sense of the performance.
Another set highlight included a shout-out to Merle Haggard as JR gave a poignant cover of “Silver Wings.”
It was an overall emotive and awe-inspiring performance, and we’re betting that the “movement” grew exponentially after Saturday’s solid showing.
