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Jars of clay7/14/2023 But Jars of Clay, whose songs often mention Jesus, outsells Grant in Christian bookstores. "Behind the Eyes," which doesn't mention Jesus, consistently has outsold "Much Afraid" in mainstream stores. Grant's pop/folk "Behind the Eyes," the 15th and latest CD in her 20-year, 20 million-sales career, was released one week before Jars' "Much Afraid." Nina Williams, a spokeswoman for the band's Nashville-based Essential label, estimates that two-thirds of the group's sales are in Christian retail outlets.Īmy Grant, the pioneering Christian singer who single-handedly took contemporary Christian music out of the gospel ghetto, sells most of her recordings in mainstream outlets. Jars' mix of conviction and creativity attracts listeners who otherwise have turned a deaf ear to Christian music. "And we're not only singing to Christians, so why would I want to write a song that uses all this language that only Christians would understand?" "The topics we deal with are universal in many ways," Haseltine said. The group tries to express religious faith without cliches or inside-the-Bible Beltway lingo. and I'm sure that's had an influence on our writing." "Plus, there's kind of a resurgence of British pop. "Steve, our guitarist, is a Beatles fanatic," Haseltine said. And on "Much Afraid," the band adds Beatles-style arrangements. But that doesn't mean you won't have struggles."Ĭontributing to the success of Jars of Clay, critics say, are memorable melodies, tight vocal harmonies and a creative mix of folk, pop and alternative rock elements. There are a lot of heartbreaks and different things you encounter. Haseltine said the band tries to "paint the other picture. But in the world we live in, all that a lot of people hear about is triumph, and that you become a Christian and all your problems are solved. "There is that triumph where Jesus did rise from the dead and conquered death and sin. "We're trying to deal realistically with what people are going through in society today," Haseltine said. Songs such as "Frail" and "Weighed Down" help explain why the band took its name from the Apostle Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians, in which he wrote, "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." The CD is named after the main character in the 1955 allegory "Hind's Feet on High Places," a perennial bestseller in Christian bookstores that portrays believers as weak and vulnerable. The band's broad appeal may be because the Christianity espoused in "Much Afraid" isn't the triumphal variety heard in much of today's Christian music. 62 on Billboard's Top 200 list, two slots behind Third Eye Blind's bestseller, "Third Eye Blind," one behind Bobby Brown's "Forever" and one ahead of Sound Garden's "Greatest Hits." And the band has received coverage in such secular publications as Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and Spin. Jars of Clay's version of David Bowie's "Heroes" plays while the final credits run on the 1996 action film "The Long Kiss Goodnight," starring Geena Davis as an amnesiac who discovers she is a government assassin. "Flood," the breakout single from their first CD, was in regular rotation on cable music stations MTV and VH-1. Last year, the group performed 300 concerts, including a few as the opening act for rock superstar Sting. ![]() They began a "hiatus" from college three years ago. We're kind of going, Whoa!' We never expected our music to get beyond the four walls of our dorm room."īut things have gone far beyond Greenville College in Illinois, where three of the four band members majored in contemporary Christian music, a genre that encompasses the rock, rap, alternative rock and pop music forms found in contemporary secular music. "Now we're starting to do international touring in Singapore, Australia and Japan. "We started out in college writing songs basically for us and a few of our friends," Haseltine said. The "Much Afraid" CD already has been certified gold, for sales exceeding 500,000 copies, and is expected to turn platinum - more than 1 million sold - by year's end. "It's always been one surprise after another," said Dan Haseltine, singer and lyricist for the band, which will perform Tuesday evening at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., as part of a nine-week national tour. ![]() 8 on Billboard magazine's Top 200 in its first week of distribution in September. And its eagerly anticipated second release, "Much Afraid," reached No. The group's 1995 recording, "Jars of Clay," has sold 1.5 million copies, one of the best-selling debuts in Christian music history. Jars of Clay isn't exactly an overnight sensation, but the band's four Generation-X members come close.
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