Tonight I made the trek to Lincoln, Nebraska to see Jars perform for the State Fair.

The band was in rare form tonight, playing to an audience of around 1,500 that seemed to get more into the show as the night went on.

In addition to playing the usual INXS and Gerry Rafferty covers, Jars also performed their rendition America's Lonely People during the encore.

I'm not an expert writer when it comes to concert reviews, but I can say that it was an excellent show - the band seemed real pleased with the crowd's receptiveness. Dan spoke about the Christmas album, Steve plugged Magnificent Me, and the giant earth ball was tossed about with great fervor.

Here are a few quick notes about the show:

Jeremy was missing in action tonight. A stripe-shirted bearded fellow filled in with a different flavor and few mishaps.


The summer shorts have now been etched into history with this new commemorative t-shirt.


If you happen to catch a Jars of Clay show before next Tuesday, the Essential Records version of Live Monsters is now available at the merch table.

Set List:
Good Monsters
Work
God Will Lift Up Your Head
Nothing But The Blood
Take Me Higher
Love Song For A Savior
There Is A River
Oh My God
All My Tears
Flood
Dead Man
Love Me
Revolution
Don't Change
(encore)
Liquid
Lonely People
Baker Street
Light Gives Heat

Labels: Reviews, Tour

Jars of Clay will be playing at Lifelight Festival for the first time this Friday. Check out this accompanying article that refers to recent "controversial" comments from Dan when the band played Sioux Falls earlier this year:

...Dan Haseltine shocked some people when he used his interview with Link to rant about the problems with Christian music – from the belief that all Christian musicians are right wing Republicans to the notion that Christian artists can’t write a song about sex.

Read the entire article here.
For more information on Lifelight Fest, click here.

Labels: Articles, Tour

This weeks' offering is a live recording of an old b-side with violinist Roddy Chiong:
Click Here to download Fly Farther (October 26, 1996 - McCain Auditorium - Manhattan, KS)

Got an idea for Media Monday? Post a comment to let us know!

Labels: Media Monday

New blog post from Steve. Check it out.

Third Day has posted the Christmas Offerings tour dates including venues, pre-sale dates, and public sale dates here.

Thanks again to Chelsa for letting us know!

Labels: Tour

Steve writes about playing Christmas music in August, filming for "Come On Over," the myspace contest, and boba tea in his latest entry on the official blog.

The 2-Disc Essential Jars of Clay collection is available for pre-ordering through Amazon.com.

Thanks, Chelsa, for letting us know!

New Christmas projects seldom sound quite this elaborate or lush, with the traditional covers revived in often brand new ways and originals having simply fun or beautifully reflective tones. After several listens, the initial wonder has not waned... This just may be the best modern Christmas album to come along in a long, long time.

Go read the entire (p)review and listen to samples of each track here. Thanks goes to Jeremy for finding this one.

Labels: Reviews

Clips from Hibernation Day, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and Drummer Boy are now available for streaming at Provident-Integrity Distribution's website. Go have a listen.

Thanks to Kevin for the heads up!

Enjoy this rare performance of Art In Me from the 2000 Christmas show at Twin City Bible Church in Urbana, IL.

Do you have an idea for Media Monday? Do you have something you'd like to share? Post your ideas and requests in the comments section.

Labels: Media Monday

A new bio from Nettwerk has been released with loads of information and very little hooplah:

Christmas Songs is the first holiday release from the band in their 12-year career, and will be the first release on their new label. The band brings new light to memorable Christmas songs such as “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” but also beaks new ground with their own original holiday songs such as “In the Bleak Midwinter,” “ Winter Skin” and “Evergreen.”

We'll look past the fact that Nettwerk is pushing a 135 year old hymn (Bleak Midwinter) as a Jars of Clay original only because of some of the fun information they decided to include:

Favorite Christmas Songs
Dan: Most likely because I grew up listening to this record at Christmas, and it has over the years just become tradition, I love the song “Aspen Glow” from John Denver's Rocky Mountain Christmas.
Charlie: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
Steve: “Wonderful Christmastime” Paul McCartney, “Twelve Days of Christmas” Ray Conniff Singers
Matt: Anything off of the Muppets and John Denver Christmas Album

The article also gives us a few hints as to what we should expect musically, including two instrumentals and a revamped version of O Little Town of Bethlehem.

Go read all about their favorite Christmas memories (and more!) right here.

Labels: Articles

Matt Odmark, Jars of Clay’s acoustic guitar player, explains a little more about the album. “More than any album that we have done as a band Good Monsters was meant to be played live. Live Monsters was our attempt to preserve some of the finer moments on the spring and fall legs of the Good Monsters tour. It was an amazing tour, and on this album you will find performances from our college tour across the northeast and west coast, our New England club run, and even a show from our first time back in Canada since 1996."

Read the full article here.

Labels: Articles

"I wrote Magnificent Me because there is nothing more rewarding than fostering the imagination of a child,” shares an enthusiastic Haseltine. “It is so important in setting up a person’s capacity to dream bigger and live more passionately. Ideas that change the world come from people who have been given permission to think about a world far beyond our physical limitations. I wanted to write a book that reminded children that they are amazing and wonderful, and it has everything to do with them being alive, and having a heart and a mind and a soul. All children need to know that they are magnificent – with or without feathers."

Read the entire article here.

Labels: Articles, Other Projects

Ladies and gentlement, behold! The logo for Jars of Clay's brand new music label, Gray Matters:

Labels: Gray Matters

"First 50 entries will receive a JOC baseball cap! Grand Prize winner will receive 2 tickets to an upcoming Jars of Clay show (in a town near you), a framed handwritten/autographed lyric sheet for the song 'Dead Man, Carry Me' and your live concert photo submitted will be the official Jars of Clay Myspace Profile Photo for 2 weeks! Interested? Click HERE for more details on how to win!!!"

Labels: Contests

A new entry from Steve has been posted at the official blog promising forthcoming youtube videos and yet another contest...

The official myspace page has also been updated with cuts from Live Monsters, available on iTunes now and everywhere else on September 4th.

This week's offering is an unofficial remix I found floating around the net almost 8 years ago. Of all the amateur remixes I've heard, this one is the best (not including the wonderful mixes found over at the Dead Man Remix Contest). After keeping it to myself for so long, I thought it was time to share:

Liquid - Jpod Wax Mix (mp3)

Also, a new ad for Live Monsters with the Mobile Mashup video was just released on Youtube:

Thanks goes to lizzy for the heads up!

Labels: Media Monday

You can now pre-order Dan Haseltine's children's book, Magnificent Me, at amazon.com.

Labels: Other Projects

According to this article at cmspin.com, the Christmas Offerings tour dates are as follows:

Nov. 29 - Rome, GA
Nov. 30 - Murray, KY
Dec. 1 - Greenville, SC
Dec. 2 - Myrtle Beach, SC
Dec. 6 - Chicago, IL
Dec. 7 - Bloomington, IL
Dec. 8 - Minneapolis, MN
Dec. 9 - Milwaukee, WI
Dec. 13 - San Antonio, TX
Dec. 14 - Houston, TX
Dec. 15 - Tulsa, OK
Dec. 16 - Memphis, TN

We'll be sure to let you know when tickets go on sale!

Labels: Tour

This one's for our friends in West Virginia:

"A 5k run/walk this weekend will raise money for clean water in Africa. The Crew Community Church is planning the run for 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 11. Proceeds from the event will raise money for Blood-Water Mission, a charity that helps provide clean water in Africa."

For a full article on the event, click here. Thanks to ctaylor for the heads up.

Labels: Blood:Water

"Get your tickets early, and a portion of the proceeds will go to benefit Blood:Water Mission, the African mission work started by Jars of Clay.”

There will only be 12 shows, and tickets go on sale September 7th! Read the announcement at Christian Today.

Labels: Tour

This week, we have an old-school message for your answering machine from Jars of Clay: Click here to download (mp3).

We also have some reader-submitted amateur photos from recent tours:















Special thanks to Liz for her willingness to share. For more photos, click here, here, here, or here.

Labels: Media Monday

"We're thrilled to have someone with the popularity of Jars of Clay - a band that has made a huge impact on the Christian music scene for a long time."

Check out this great, expectant article about Jars' upcoming show in Joseph Riley Park, Charleston, SC.

Labels: Articles, Tour

Blume, a conference sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union in Kansas City, in which more than 3,000 teenage collegiate girls and leaders are challenged to have an "Amazing Life", is donating to Blood:Water Mission as part of the "5 Ways of Giving" iniciative, which consists in putting their faith in action by knowing about different issues and supporting ministries at the same time:

Jena Lee, executive director of Blood:Water Mission, a ministry founded by Christian rock band Jars of Clay to provide clean water to Africans, was on hand to describe the initiative to provide clean water to 1,000 villages.
Part of Blood:Water Mission's thrust is its "Two Weeks of Sacrifice" campaign to forgo everyday beverages such as soda or coffee and drink only tap water; each dollar of savings donated through the ministry can provide clean water to a villager for a year. After watching a video about the project, Cassie Short, a 10th-grader from First Baptist Church in Odessa, Mo., was challenged by "how far the [people] had to walk to get water and how dirty the water was."

Read the article here.

Labels: Articles, Blood:Water

Go check out the latest post from Charlie at the official blog.

A rather interesting take on Jars of Clay's musical journey, called "Not Cool, Thank God," has been posted at newsreview.com:

"Lately, no band does fragile better than Jars of Clay—and really, that’s remarkable in the world of Christian rock. This music, as a rule, is most welcoming to sentiments of the sunshine, lollipops and rainbows variety. Despair, uncertainty and frailty are not in. But the Jars runneth over with it."

Sophomoric humor aside (the article's subtitle is "Jars of Clay discovers that trying too hard makes baby Jesus cry"), it's a relatively well thought-out article. Go check it out.

Special thanks to patty at the Jarchives forum for giving us the heads up.

Labels: Articles

Charleston, SC's Post & Courier posted an article with some interview elements from Jars of Clay this morning. Included are some statements from band members regarding their new approach to songwriting:

"In a way, we're weighing in on the bigger conversation we've kept ourselves out of for a long time," Haseltine said. "The conversations about relationships or social justice, but recognizing we don't have to be the voice of the church."

To read After 13 Sucessful Years, Still Hard to Label Jars, click here.

Labels: Articles