It’s been just over a decade since longtime friends Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance holed up in a cabin outside of Heber City, Utah, to record their first album.
Over a period of two weeks, with minimal recording equipment and a lot of inspiration from the Wasatch Mountains, the musicians created their first Americana/folk-infused album filled with tight harmonies that reflected their close friendship and years of performing together.
Since much of their music references places that have been formative in their lives and careers, they named the album “Utah.” But to their surprise, when they began touring in support of that album, they found a lackluster response in the Beehive State.
In fact, Clay used three sad words to sum up Jamestown Revival’s first show in Utah: “It wasn’t good.”
“I think we had eight people show up, eight or 12, something like that. It was less than 20,” he previously told the Deseret News. “The venue was cool but we just didn’t sell any tickets. And no matter how cool the city is or the venue is, if nobody shows up to see you play, it’s just not a good show. You don’t tour to play for yourself.”
But Jamestown Revival never gave up on Utah.
As Clay tells it, the band’s Utah fans “came out of nowhere.” Over the past several years, Jamestown Revival has performed sold-out shows at Salt Lake City’s The State Room, and expanded to the larger sister venue The Commonwealth Room that is about double the size — and sold that out.
“We don’t take that for granted,” Clay said.
Now, Jamestown Revival has gained even wider recognition as the composers behind the smash Broadway hit “The Outsiders,” which last year won the Tony Award for best musical and is up for the best musical theater album Grammy Award on Feb. 2.
Winning would mark the musicians' first Grammy, the culmination of work that began not long after that secluded recording session in the Wasatch Mountains.
“At some point, you’re just like, ‘How lucky am I gonna get?’ It’s icing on the cake,” Clay recently told Rolling Stone. “Zach and I have been writing songs since we were 15. A Grammy, to us, is the ultimate honor.”
How Jamestown Revival joined ‘The Outsiders’
About a year after the release of “Utah,” Jamestown Revival’s manager approached them with an unexpected opportunity.
Some people in his circle were working on a musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age novel “The Outsiders,” and they wanted the songs to come from Broadway outsiders, as Texas Highways reported.
Jamestown Revival fit the bill.
Clay told Rolling Stone the closest he and Chance ever got to the theater world before that was when they sang together in high school choir. But according to their “Outsiders” music collaborator, Justin Levine, the “youthful, throwing-caution-to-the-wind feel” of “Utah” got at the heart of “The Outsiders.”
So Clay and Chance, who are from the small town of Magnolia, Texas, and began writing songs together as teenagers, composed two songs in an attempt to get the gig — one they thought was “way too slow” and not what the production was looking for, and the other “a really quintessential Broadway-sounding tune,” Clay told Texas Standard.
They ended up pitching the one with Broadway vibes.
“They really didn’t like it,” Clay told Texas Standard. “They were like, ‘Do you have anything else?’ And we were like, ‘Well, just send them the one that they probably won’t like, but what do we have to lose at this point? We already sent them something they hated.‘ So we sent them that.”
That song, “Stay Gold,” was well received. And roughly nine years later, it’s one of the biggest hits in the musical, and has been performed on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
But “Stay Gold” was just the beginning.
Over the years, Jamestown Revival scrapped songs and reworked others, and studied the art of writing for a musical — particularly how to write songs that move the story forward and write songs that reflect and match the tone of the characters.
“Writing for the musical, I think it made us better songwriters in every capacity,” Clay told Texas Standard. “And it was such a fun chapter. And now it’s so fun watching it affect people and watching it create its own life.”
Composing a musical also meant Clay and Chance, who are used to going on tour and taking center stage, were more in the background as the stars of “The Outsiders” brought their music to life.
But hearing their songs performed on the Broadway stage, and seeing them resonate with such a wide audience, has been a huge reward for the pair of musicians, who received a Tony nomination for best original score.
“One thing we keep hearing is, ‘This musical really sounds unique. It doesn’t sound like traditional Broadway,‘” Clay told Texas Highways. “And I love to hear that.”
“Americana has reached a level of popularity that I don’t think anyone would have ever guessed,” he later told Rolling Stone. “People want to hear that kind of music in other art forms, like Broadway.”
What’s next for Jamestown Revival
While Clay and Chance aren’t opposed to working on another musical, they told Rolling Stone they’ve started working on a new album — it’s been three years since their last — and that they’re looking forward to applying the lessons and techniques they’ve learned from “The Outsiders” songwriting process.
“We’re two buddies from Magnolia, Texas, and if we’re writing songs and making a living, we’re beating the system,” Chance told Rolling Stone. “We’re just excited to keep exploring where our collaboration takes us. The musical has taught us to say, ‘Yes’ to things and just dive in.”
Top Jamestown Revival songs
For fans of “The Outsiders” who are interested in exploring Jamestown Revival’s music, here are two top songs from each of their albums.
Album: “Utah” (2014)
“California (Cast Iron Soul)”
“Wandering Man”
Album: “The Education of a Wandering Man” (2016)
“Love is a Burden”
“Company Man”
Album: “San Isabel” (2019)
“Round Prairie Road”
“Harder Way”
Album: “Young Man” (2022)
“Young Man”
“These Days”