Jars of Clay
is a Grammy Award winning Christian rock band from Franklin, Tennessee. They met at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois. [1]
Jars of Clay consists of Dan Haseltine on vocals, Charlie Lowell on piano and keyboards, Stephen Mason on lead guitars and Matthew Odmark on rhythm guitars. Although the band has no permanent drummer or bassist, Jeremy Lutito and Gabe Ruschival of Disappointed By Candy fill these roles for live concerts. Past tour band members include Aaron Sands, Scott Savage, and Joe Porter. Jake Goss was recently added to the band to play drums for their summer tour. Jars of Clay's style is a blend of alternative rock, folk, acoustic, and R&B.
The band's name is derived from the New International Version's translation of 2 Corinthians 4:7:
| “
| But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
| ”
|
This verse is paraphrased in their song "Four Seven," which appears on Frail
and as a hidden track on the CD release of their self-titled album.
|
JARS OF CLAY TICKETS
|
Band history
Formation
Dan Haseltine,
Steve Mason,
Charlie Lowell and
Justin Gabriel formed Jars of Clay at
Greenville College, in
Greenville, Illinois in the early 1990s.
first met
Dan Haseltine after noticing that he was wearing a
Toad the Wet Sprocket shirt. Pursuing a career in music together was not necessarily their original goal; some of the first songs they wrote together were for music and recording classes they were taking at the time.
Their second
guitarist Matt Bronleewe joined some time later, and
drummer Joseph Quevedo occasionally joined them for some of their early public performances. While in college playing together at local Christian coffee houses, Jars gained quite a reputation for their very original arrangement of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" which had been deftly adapted to the tune of
Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
In 1994, the band submitted a
demo to a talent competition run by the
Gospel Music Association and were selected as finalists.
They traveled to
Nashville to perform and won the contest.
Back in Greenville, they self-released a limited-run of the same demo, which they named
Frail
, after their
song of the same name. The buzz from their performance in Nashville and the demo's popularity resulted in offers from record labels, so the band decided to drop school and move to Nashville. At this time, Bronlewee left the band to finish school and settle down with his fiancée. He was replaced with
Matt Odmark, Lowell's childhood friend and fellow
McQuaid Jesuit High School alum.
Jars of Clay & Drummer Boy EP
Jars of Clay signed with
Essential Records and started recording their first full-length
studio album, titled
Jars of Clay.
King Crimson prog-rocker
Adrian Belew heard the band and offered to produce, leading to him producing two songs - "Liquid" and "Flood."
[2] [3] The band's self-titled debut released in 1995. When the single "Flood" began to climb the charts on mainstream radio stations,
Silvertone Records (Essential's parent company) started to heavily promote the song, turning it into one of the biggest mainstream hits ever by a band on a Christian label.
The album has since reached multi-platinum certification according to the
RIAA.
[4]
The band toured in support of other Christian acts, such as
PFR, and aside mainstream acts like
Matchbox Twenty,
Duncan Sheik, and
Sting. This resulted in a small
backlash from
fundamentalist Christian groups.
[5] The band released a Christmas
EP entitled
Drummer Boy
at the end of 1995. The EP was re-released in 1997 with a slightly different track listing on Silvertone.
Much Afraid
The year 1997 also saw the release of the band's
sophomore album,
Much Afraid
, which was produced by
Stephen Lipson.
[6] The album sold very well and went on to earn a
Grammy award for "Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album".
[7] The album has since earned
platinum certification by the RIAA.
They released two music videos for this album, Crazy Times and Five Candles (You Were There).
If I Left The Zoo
In 1999, Jars of Clay released their third album,
If I Left The Zoo
, which was produced by
Dennis Herring.
[8] The record earned the band their second Grammy award.
It was during this time that touring
drummer Scott Savage left the band's touring group to play for
Jaci Velasquez and was replaced by
Joe Porter. Lead
radio single, "
Unforgetful You", was also featured on the
soundtrack to the
motion picture Drive Me Crazy
.
[9] "Collide" was also featured on the motion picture "Hometown Legend". Upon the release of
If I Left The Zoo
they also released
Front Yard Luge and after a year
The White Elephant Sessions.
If I Left The Zoo
so far has the most single released by Jars of Clay.
In 2001, the four members of the band received honorary degrees at
Greenville College.
[10] However, only three of them, Haseltine, Lowell, and Mason had studied at the college before dropping out in 1994 to move to
Nashville, while Odmark still received an honorary degree, despite having attended university in
New York.
[11]
The Eleventh Hour
In 2002, the band self-produced and released their fourth album entitled
The Eleventh Hour
, which earned the band a
Grammy award for the third album in a row.
The album relied on studio musicians and the band's touring musicians to fill in for the band's lack of
drummer and
bass player.
Furthermore & Who We Are Instead
The year 2003 saw the band taking a look back at their career. The double-disc
Furthermore: From the Studio, From the Stage
features an acoustic disc and a live disc. The acoustic disc consisted of reworked and rearranged fan favorites, two
The Eleventh Hour
b-sides, and a cover of
Adam Again's "Dig".
[13] The latter was actually intended for a tribute album for
Gene Eugene, who had died recently. The live disc features a recent concert recording that include songs from throughout the band's career. The video of this same concert would later be released via
DVD on
11Live: Jars of Clay in Concert
.
The band continued the acoustic and organic approach that was featured on
Furthermore
for their fifth studio album entitled
Who We Are Instead
, which released on
November 4,
2003. On the album, the band revisited various styles they had used previously, as well as experimenting with new influences, such as gospel, hymns, and
Nickel Creek's "newgrass" style.
Redemption Songs
In early 2005, the band released
Redemption Songs
, a collection of
hymns and traditional songs. The band wrote new melodies to some old hymns and rearranged the music for several others. "
God Will Lift Up Your Head", reworked as an acoustic rocker, was a hit for the band on Christian radio. They also covered five hymns from the (a series which originated from the work of
Reformed University Fellowship).
[14]
Good Monsters
In late 2005, the band announced that the writing process for a new studio album was nearing completion, and that they would be returning to the studio to record the album in the spring. This new project, entitled
Good Monsters
, was released on
September 5,
2006. Backstage at the 2006
GMA Awards, Jars of Clay labeled the album their first ever rock record.
[15] In the September 2006 edition of
CCM Magazine, the band credited fellow artist
Ashley Cleveland with inspiring the improvisational sound of the album.
[16] [17] The magazine called it "the most profound album the Christian music community has released in years."
Jars of Clay's song "Flood", from their debut album, was used as the theme song to
A&E's 2006 documentary
God or the Girl
, which tracked the lives of four young men deciding whether to become
Catholic priests.
On
September 4,
2007, two albums from the band were released simultaneously. The first was a mainstream release of
Live Monsters
, which is an
EP of live concert recordings of songs that were originally recorded for
Good Monsters
. The EP had been previously released through the
iTunes Store and through the official Jars of Clay online store. The second album released on this date was a
greatest hits album, entitled
The Essential Jars of Clay
, which was released through Essential/
Legacy.
On
April 1,
2008, Essential Records released the band's third greatest hits album (the second in the past year), entitled
Greatest Hits
. Included was the new song "Love is the Protest".
In Summer of 2007, the song '
Good Monsters' was featured in the pilot of the television show '
Eli Stone' Additionally, the song '
Work' was used in promotional material for the Fox Television network shows '
Bones' and '
House'.
Gray Matters
In March 2007, the band announced at a concert in
Des Moines, Iowa that they were no longer on Essential Records and would now be releasing music independently. Later, press releases announced the name of their label as
Gray Matters, which would be a partnership with
Nettwerk Music Group.
[18] Along with the announcement of their new label, the band mentioned that they are planning to record the soundtrack to Sons of Lwala, a documentary about Milton and Fred Ochieng' - brothers from the African village training to be doctors in the States, working to build a clinic in their home town.
[19]
The band's first release through Gray Matters was a
Christmas album that was released on
October 16,
2007, entitled
Christmas Songs
.
Most recently, the band's song "Love came down at Christmas" was sampled in the Samuel Victor song "Stars and Angels".
On
July 29,
2008, Gray Matters Records released their latest record
Closer EP
exclusively through online digital music stores. It was subsequently released on CD on
August 19,
2008. Closer EP included reworked versions of "Flood" (called "Flood (New Rain)) and "Love Song For A Savior ('08)" from their debut album. It also included "Prisoner of Hope", which is not found on any other Jars album.
On December 8, 2008, the song "Closer" was featured in the 12th episode of the television show
Privileged.
The Long Fall Back to Earth
Jars of Clay's tenth studio album was released on April 21, 2009. The new record contains 14 songs, including Closer and Safe to Land from the Closer EP, and is influenced by 80s music, specifically
Tears For Fears and
The Cure. It is entitled
The Long Fall Back to Earth
.
[20]
The song "Hero" was featured on a trailer for NBC's
Kings.
[21]
"The Long Fall Back To Earth" debuted at #29 on the Billboard 200 mainstream charts, which was Jars of Clay's highest debut since "The Eleventh Hour" which debuted at #28 in 2002.
[22]
The first radio single off the album is
Two Hands, which peaked at #6 on the
Hot Christian Songs chart.
Band members
Current members
- Dan Haseltine – vocals, percussion, melodica
- Charlie Lowell – piano, organ, accordion, keys, background vocals
- Stephen Mason – guitar, vocals, bass, lap and pedal steel, national, mandolin, background vocals
- Matthew Odmark – acoustic guitar, banjo, background vocals
Former member
- Matt Bronleewe – guitar (1993–94)
Current touring members
- Gabe Ruschival – bass (2006–present)
- Jake Goss – drums (2009–Present)
Former touring members
- Aaron Sands – bass (1995–2005)
- Jeremy Lutito – drums (2005–2009)
- Joe Porter – drums (1999–2005)
- Scott Savage – drums (1995–99)
Discography
Studio albums
- Frail
(1994)
- Jars of Clay
(1995)
- Much Afraid
(1997)
- If I Left the Zoo
(1999)
- The Eleventh Hour
(2002)
- Who We Are Instead
(2003)
- Redemption Songs
(2005)
- Good Monsters
(2006)
- Christmas Songs
(2007)
- The Long Fall Back to Earth
(2009)
Awards
Jars of Clay has been successful in being nominated for and winning several awards, including prestigious
Grammy Awards and several of the Christian music awards, known as the
GMA Dove Awards.
[23] Some of these successes have been collaborative efforts, including two
City on a Hill
albums and the
inspired collaboration for the 2005 film
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
. The group has won five
Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) awards.
In June 2009, Jars of Clay was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.
[24]
Blood:Water Mission
Lead singer Dan Haseltine visited
Africa in 2002, which in turn inspired the founding of
Blood:Water Mission, a non-profit organization created to raise awareness and money for the
poverty and
AIDS stricken regions of the continent.
[25] The name is derived from, as Haseltine says, "The two things Africa needs most" - clean blood and clean water. The mission has begun the 1000 Wells project, an effort to have a thousand new
wells built throughout Africa.
[26]
Beliefs
In a 2002 interview with
NPR's
Scott Simon on
Weekend Edition Saturday
, responding to a question about the relatively subtle religious content of their music, Haseltine said, "our songs ... [are] not really there to explain our faith," but are "written about our life that is affected by our faith." Haseltine explained the decision to "shy away from ... traditional religious language" as a conscious one, in part to make their music more accessible to those "put off by religion", and to "love people in a way that isn't exclusive to simply people that understand the language of Christianity."
[27] Haseltine also stated that art can "make people feel what's true rather than telling them".
References
- Jars of Clay. (2005). Making the Grade. iTunes Originals - Jars of Clay. Audio. Essential Records.
- Jars of Clay Credits
- Jars of Clay. (2005). The Other Side of Lightning In a Bottle. iTunes Originals - Jars of Clay. Audio. Essential Records.
- RIAA.com
- Faith Under Fire
- Much Afraid Credits
- &winner=jars%20of%20clay&year=0&genreID=0&hp=1
- If I Left the Zoo Credits
- Jars of Clay. (1999). Unforgetful You. Drive Me Crazy. [1]. Jive.
- Jars Of Clay - Jars Of Clay Receive Honorary Diplomas
- Jars of Clay. (2005). We Were Becoming One With the Mud. iTunes Originals - Jars of Clay. Audio. Essential Records.
- Jars Of Clay - Jars of Clay Intimately Involved In The Eleventh Hour
- Jars Of Clay - Furthermore-From the Studio: From the Stage
- Redemption Songs
- Jars of Clay 2006 Interview, “Good Monsters”
- Big Monster on Campus
- Jars of Clay. (2005). A Modern Day Hymn. iTunes Originals - Jars of Clay. Audio. Essential Records.
- Jars of Yule
- Jars of Clay Launching Own Label With Nettwerk
- Love Coming Down
- YouTube - NBC's TV show "Kings" trailer feat. JARS OF CLAY's song "Hero"
- http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?f=The+Billboard+200&pageNumber=Top+11-50&g=A
- Dove Awards
- http://www.peacebypeace.com/heroes/view/id/87
- Why We’re Here
- What We’re Doing
- NPR ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' interview