In an article entitled "Where they go, fans will follow," LexGo.com shares some remarks from Charlie Lowell about going independent. Give it a read here.

Labels: Articles, Gray Matters

CMSpin has an article which marks the beginning of promotion for Jars of Clay's Greatest Hits album. Check it out here.

The full tracklist is as follows:
Flood
Love Song For A Savior
Like A Child
Worlds Apart
Crazy Times
Frail
Unforgetful You
I Need You
Show You Love
Amazing Grace
God Will Lift Up Your Head
Dead Man (Carry Me)
Work
Love Is The Protest (NEW)

Labels: Articles, New Releases

Nashville’s Musicians On Call (MOC) was pleased to bring Grammy Award winning group Jars of Clay to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt on Tuesday, December 18 to celebrate the holiday season. Jars of Clay members Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Steve Mason and Matt Odmark led the children in a sing-a-long with classics such as “Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer” and “Let It Snow...”

Read the full article from saWorship.com here

Labels: Articles

Not only are many major news publications taking notice of Jars of Clay's Christmas Songs, but they're taking notice of the fact that they're taking notice. Click here to read an article from Breathecast to see several favorable quotes from USA Today, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, and many more.

Good news for radio, too:
As the only artist on the R&R Christian AC Monitor chart with two of their own Christmas songs in the Top 30, the singles from Christmas Songs are also receiving great support from Christian radio: Love Came Down at Christmas jumped eight spots this week from #30 to #22 at R&R AC Monitor, and Wonderful Christmastime debuted on AC Monitor at #29.

Read all about it here...

Labels: Articles

Here is an article in which Dan talks about the focus of Blood:Water Mission and how they are achieving their goals, there is also some talk about Christmas Songs and The Magnicifent Me book.

Labels: Articles, Blood:Water

Right from the beginning of their set, Jars of Clay put the small but energetic crowd into the holiday spirit...Lead singer Dan Haseltine wore a black-and-white scarf and often sang near a silver Christmas tree onstage....The band played a mix of their original material and classic Christmas tunes, including “Love Came Down at Christmas.”

Check out this article about the past Christmas show of Jars and Third Day in Fayetteville, NC.

Labels: Articles, Tour

Here is an interview with Mac Powell, lead singer of Thrid Day, about their Christmas Tour with Jars. He hints (and confirms) about the bands playing together in some songs during shows and also about how the tour will help Africa.

Labels: Articles, Interviews

Guess what? Yes, another article for Christmas Songs, you can read it here, it's really a review of the band's career and the new album. Nothing new, don't worry, but if you are a Jars' news freak, check it out.

Labels: Articles, Christmas Album

Click here for yet another Magnificent Me article from News-Leader.com.

Labels: Articles, Other Projects

“Noah and Max did not know I had contacted a publisher and that the book was coming out, so when I received my first copy, I surprised them with it at bedtime. To paraphrase a newspaper that captured that moment, ‘It might not have been thousands of people clapping at a Jars of Clay concert, but those two little pairs of hands clapping meant more than anything.’”

Read the full article from cmspin here.

Labels: Articles, Other Projects

“Noah and Max did not know I had contacted a publisher and that the book was coming out, so when I received my first copy, I surprised them with it at bedtime. To paraphrase a newspaper that captured that moment, ‘It might not have been thousands of people clapping at a Jars of Clay concert, but those two little pairs of hands clapping meant more than anything.’”

Read the full article from cmspin here.

Labels: Articles, Other Projects

Dan Haseltine is more than the lead singer for the Christian band Jars of Clay; he's also a parent.
...

“The One, The Only, Magnificent Me” debuted as the No. 1 children's book on Christian book wholesaler Spring Arbor's best-selling list, and was No. 2 for illustrated children's books on the Top 100 Bestseller List at Ingram Book Group.

For some new news about Dan's children's book, continue reading here.

Labels: Articles, Other Projects

A review of Jars of Clay's performance at Lifelight Fest has been posted at ArgusLeader.com:

[Songs like] the band's big secular crossover hit "Flood" - which featured Haseltine stalking the stage like Mick Jager minus the sexual swagger, and the repetitive pop tune "Love Me" brought people's hands up into the air.

Read the full article here.

Labels: Articles, 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

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

"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

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

Several famous artists are going to play for free in the California Mid-State Fair (Paso Robles, CA) at "The Budweiser Fort Frontier stage" which offers 3,500 seats. Among the artists (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Elvin Bishop, Chubby Checker & the Wildcats), Jars of Clay is scheduled to perform on July 29th. Each act will play two shows a day, at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m.

For more information about California Mid-State Fair summertime shows and all artists performing there, click here.

Labels: Articles, Tour

"Recently finished with recording a Christmas album, Jars of Clay is at work on a score for a documentary that features two brothers who start a clinic in Africa.

'It's an amazing story of what rarely happens in Africa,' said Haseltine, the activist in him taking over. 'When people leave there to get an education and go back. Most times they get it and leave.'"

Read the full article here.

Labels: Articles, Christmas Album