With their recent release of “Good Monsters“, there doesn’t seem to be any better of an artist to highlight this week than Jars of Clay. I’ve been a fan of Jars of Clay since their freshman, self-titled release with favorites like “Flood” and “Love Song for a Savior”. It wasn’t too long ago that I saw them perform at the Indiana State Fair, as well as shared a snippet of a recent interview of Dan Haseltine, their lead singer.
The band has a separate website where I found some historical information about the band so I can share some of their details with you here.
Jars of Clay began at Greenville College in Greenville, IL when four young lads met and discovered friendship through music. They were majors in “Contemporary Christian Music”, a somewhat recent department in the college. Charlie Lowell, Dan Haseltine and Matt Bronleewe had been there for the year of 1992 and played in various bands as well as producing their own studio projects. These bands included Chrysalis, Jazon, Yellow #7, Second Level, and many other school bands involving students from the CCM department as well as others. When Stephen Mason appeared on the scene in september of 1993, and had similar interests in music, the guys decided to write a song together, “just for fun”. Dan had met Stephen because he had a Toad the Wet Sprocket shirt on, a band which they both admired for their unique sound.
I never realized it before but I had a connection with Greenville College during that time through a California Bike Trip in January of ’93. A small group from our college met up with a small group from Greenville and spent the month of January bicycling down the coast of California. One of the friends I made on the trip was in charge of putting together the Agape Festival, where Jars of Clay later performed.
Jars of Clay has had a number of great albums over the years including:
- 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)
Check out Jars of Clay official website or their MySpace page. Did you know they wrote a song for Coca-Cola too?
The group has also started a missions/ministry organization called Blood:Water Mission.
Blood:Water Mission exists to promote clean blood and clean water efforts in Africa, tangibly reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic while addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression. Blood:Water Mission is building clean water wells, supporting medical facilities, and focusing on community and worldview transformation, both here in America and in Africa.
