Lance Stafford (Photo credit: K-State Extension News Service)
March 4, 2026 (k-state.edu) — Let’s go to Pennsylvania. A band is setting up for their show, as part of a tour that has taken them halfway across the continent from Kansas.
Last week we learned about Layne Stafford. In addition to being a muralist, he also plays in a band. That band is led by his twin brother, Lance Stafford.
The Stafford twins grew up in Hill City where their father was a music teacher and their mother an elementary school teacher. Lance Stafford came to K-State and graduated in elementary education, but didn’t really want to be in the classroom.
He stayed in Manhattan and enjoyed writing and performing contemporary Christian music. He also went to a local music festival, Country Stampede, and thought how cool it would be to perform live music like he saw there.
“I was on a softball team with some guys who said they wanted to start a new church and needed a worship leader,” Stafford said. “I told them I would do three months. Then three months turned into a year, a year turned into three years, and so on.”
At the church, he and some friends played praise music, including songs that Stafford had written. “My dream to write and play music was coming true,” he said.
In 2008, he learned about a music contest in Nashville. Stafford secretly entered two categories of the contest, drove to Nashville to perform – and won both categories.
As winners, Stafford and his three bandmates were entitled to record five songs in a professional studio. One of those was Stafford’s song “Take Me into the Beautiful.”
They entered that song in a bigger contest called Rock the Camp – and won that contest too.
“Our manager said we had to have a name for the band,” Stafford said. “We tossed around all kinds of names. We were staying on a street in Nashville called Clovernook and we kind of liked that. We adapted it to Cloverton and it stuck.”
Cloverton includes Lance Stafford as lead vocalist and on keyboards, and his brother Layne on bass, plus a drummer and guitarist.
Cloverton became a hit. “The Lord just opened up doors,” Stafford said.
Cloverton got a song on KLOVE radio and scored the number one most downloaded song in the history of KLOVE. That same song also charted at #12 on the overall Christian Billboard top 25.
In 2012, their manager suggested they record a Christmas song. They and some friends went to Manhattan’s Varsity Donuts after hours and recorded a music video based on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
“We got to eat all the leftover donuts,” Stafford said.
The video went viral. It literally got a million views on YouTube and was featured on CNN and other media outlets. Cloverton later released a Christmas EP titled “We Sing Joy” which climbed to No. 1 for multiple weeks on iTunes.
Cloverton started touring full-time across the nation. Their annual Christmastime tour proved extremely popular and still continues today. “We put on 18 shows in 21 days,” Stafford said.
Tours were cancelled when the Covid pandemic hit, but Cloverton has resumed the Christmas tours. Stafford and his wife and two boys live in Manhattan. He now performs as worship leader at Rock Hills Church in Manhattan when not touring.
Stafford reflected on how Christian music helped him when he felt lost.
“In my early years, everything was planned out for me,” he said. “There’s school and then college. But after that, I was at a broken place, working at a couple of part-time jobs.”
“God used music as a place of comfort, a place of inspiration. The message of everything I write is a journey of someone who follows Christ. Maybe my music can help someone else.”
Cloverton has performed in every state in the continental U.S. It’s an impressive record for the Staffords, who come from the rural community of Hill City, population 1,374 people. Now, that’s rural.
For more information, see www.clovertonmusic.com.
We commend Lance Stafford of Cloverton for making a difference with inspirational music, along with all the boys in the band.
