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After 13 successful years, still hard to label Jars

BY KEITH RYAN CARTWRIGHT

Provided

Grammy-winning, faith-based rockers Jars of Clay will play a show at Riley Park this weekend.

The unlucky No. 13 supposedly carries with it an uneasy feeling.

Try and explain that sentiment to the members of the band Jars of Clay.

Already 13 years into the group's career, Jars of Clay has sold millions of albums, won almost every conceivable award (including a Grammy) and has long since established the group as one of the pre-eminent Christian rock artists of all time.

So, in early 2006, as the band recorded its latest album "Good Monsters," the guys had but one goal in mind — "the singular intention," according to guitarist Stephen Mason, "of making a real rock-'n'-roll record."

That said, "Monsters" is an almost indescribable departure from the acoustic-driven hymns collection, "Redemption Songs," the band had released in March 2005.

Not only is "Monsters" a sonic departure, but it also provided the band — Matt Odmark, Charlie Lowell, Don Haseltine, longtime touring bassist Aaron Sands, newcomer Jeremy Lituto and Mason — an opportunity to write and record as a complete band.

"In 13 years we've learned how to be a great band," Odmark said. "Young bands can't play like a band that's been together for 10 years. … This is who we are and what we're capable of."

And what they're capable of is exactly what they've been since Day One: a great American rock-'n'-roll band, period. Formed by Hasletine, Lowell and Mason while the trio were students at Greenville (Illinois) College, the band self-released a demo, "Frail," before leaving school and relocating to Nashville following a talent contest sponsored by the Gospel Music Association.

Odmark joined soon thereafter and the group began work on its self-titled debut, which featured the breakthrough single, "Flood."

The song was released in late 1995 and by early '96 it caught on with secular stations, especially those in the Northwest, and became a major crossover hit. Its peak position, No. 37, on the Billboard pop chart makes it one of the few '90s-era cuts whose release format (Christian) affected its chart eligibility, thus obscuring how massively popular it truly was.

Secular supporters were upset to learn Jars of Clay was a Christian band and, likewise, the Christian community grew increasingly frustrated with the fact that the band spent much of '96 touring with alternative rock bands.

"We've gone through seasons of frustrations for different things," Odmark said. "The people who follow us … follow what we do and appreciate what we offer, that's who we do this for."

Truth be told, Jars of Clay's popularity was so immediate the band never had an opportunity to tell anyone who they were, much less what they stood for.

In any case, while many of the band's lyrics remain decidedly Christian in theme, Jars of Clay's music is and always has been that of a rock band which, at least in part, is the cause for "Monsters."

The album is as much about finding balance, as it is reconciliation.

Given the members' Christian beliefs, a lot of the past material has had lofty themes, whereas this time around Haseltine focused "on small amounts of emotion."

By that, he means, it's about the moment you're in as opposed to the front and back end of the whole story.

"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."

Unfortunately, that seems to be an easier realization for the band than it has been for consumers and, more importantly, mainstream radio (which has never re-embraced the band since the runaway success of "Flood" some 13 years ago).

"These days it's just the way the business is," said Odmark, who also noted that while the "Christian" label is with the band, Jars of Clay is intent on remaining unapologetic musically and creatively. "It makes it challenging."

Already a significant voice, Jars of Clay, like any other of the few bands whose work spans more than a decade, deserves to be the voice of a generation, as opposed to being made to feel as though they're the voice of a genre.

Keith Ryan Cartwright is a Nashville-based freelance entertainment journalist.