Gothic Theatre
Jars Of Clay
Jars of Clay is comprised of Dan Haseltine, lead vocals, Stephen Mason, guitar/ background vocals, Matt Odmark, electric and acoustic guitars/background vocals, and Charlie Lowell, piano and keyboards/background vocals.
Jars Of Clay are based in Nashville, Tennessee, but its members are from all over the country. All in their mid-20s, singer Dan Haseltine is from Winter Park, Florida, guitarist Matt Odmark and keyboardist Charlie Lowell are from Rochester, New York, and bassist Steve Mason is from Decatur, Illinois. Their first, eponymous release crossed over to all kinds of disparate radio formats, propelling these Sunday School phenoms to the top of the charts, garnering incredible sales numbers. They built from a base of Christian music, but have left enough room for interpretation in their music for it to find, obviously, fairly universal appeal. Adrian Belew of King Crimson, a recent Christian convert (he married into it), produced some of Jars’s debut release. The band draws its name, as it does most of its songs, from some verse in the Bible (IICor. 4:7). JOC seem not to be too intent on converting anyone, and only want to be good people, so it’s less frightening than, say, the Inquisition, but the way they leapt to the top of the charts so quickly still says a lot about the state of our union.
Jars Of Clay’s second release, Much Afraid, came out in 1997, followed by 1999’s If I Left The Zoo and 2002’s Eleventh Hour. None of these releases found as much success with secular, mainstream audiences as JOC’s debut, but Much Afraid did reach the U.S. top 10 and win a Grammy for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Performance, and If I Left The Zoo eventually went gold, thus establishing JOC as superstars of the contemporary Chiristian genre. In 2003, the band released a best-of retrospective, Furthermore: From The Studio, From The Stage/i>.
