ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 27, 1996 TAG: 9612270018
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
"We have this treasure in jares of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." -the Apostle Paul
The phrase "jars of clay" doesn't exactly scream out "Bible" to those who don't frequent its pages.
And the band "Jars of Clay" doesn't exactly scream out "contemporary Christian rock group" to those who tune it in on the radio.
But the phrase is there, open to interpretation. And the band, well, that's open to interpretation, too.
"The jar of clay is a picture of something so easily broken that you wouldn't put a valuable treasure in it, yet God does that anyway," bassist Steve Mason has said. "That one verse paints a picture of what we're trying to communicate."
Matt Oddmark, guitarist for this band that is alternately classified as "Christian rock" and simply "rock," says he's just trying to communicate the world as he sees it. The same is true for the other three 20-something members of this group.
"The four of us are all Christians, and we grew up in Christian homes," Oddmark said in a recent telephone interview. "We write music that is very personal music, so it deals with a lot of issues of faith and struggles and Christian life."
When the band first recorded its most recent CD (``Jars of Clay'' for Nashville's Essential label) members thought they were going to be making music for the Christian world. But the beats were catchy, the guitar riffs comparable to what was being played on modern rock stations. Suddenly, different types of people were interested.
"At first we were shocked but at the same time, pretty excited," Oddmark said. "We still see ourselves as Christians and as a Christian band. Though at the same time, we find ourselves playing in places where Christian music doesn't get played very often.
"People don't exactly know what to do with us."
At the Record Exchange in Blacksburg, for instance, Jars of Clay is kept in the rock section - there's no gospel or Christian music section of the store.
"A lot of people buy it without realizing at first that it's a Christian band," said David Jackson, a manager there.
Keith Camper, a manager at Valley View Mall's Blockbuster Music, agreed. "A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics - they listen to the guitar and drums," he said. At his store, Jars of Clay is kept in a section labeled "Contemporary Christian."
The band saw a bit of air play on WROV-FM for its more popular singles, and more airplay on Christian radio station PAR-FM.
George McNerlin, general manager of PAR-FM, said the music is popular with his audience in the 18- to 34-year-old age bracket.
The band, which won a Dove Award for the year's best new artist, has been compared to everything from Toad the Wed Sprocket to America. And certainly, Oddmark said, lead singer Dan Haseltine professes to be a Sprocket fan. Oddmark and his long-time friend/keyboardist Charlie Lowell, favor singer/songwriters like David Wilcox, Mark Kohn and "folks like that." Mason favors the Beatles and more classic artists.
The music, Oddmark says, is written by the four of them combined. They collaborate on the lyrics, too, which contain images of nails and blood-stained brows, heaven and angels, water and mountains. The sentiments: pain and healing, faith and confusion. And love.
"We have faith in Christ," Oddmark says. "We express that, but not in an overly preachy way. We're four very normal guys who like making music together."
Most fans are supportive of the group, which has risen in the past two years from pizza delivery jobs and late nights remodeling Office Max to a major cross country tour with more studio time at the end of it.
"We get occasional razzing from both sides of the fence, people who think we're not Christian enough or too Christian," Oddmark says. "We're finding out who we are and how to best express that and to realize there's always going to be a group of people that thinks we should be different. That's OK. That's just life. I think that we're gradually learning how to be less and less focused on what people are thinking and saying and doing what's in our hearts."
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LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: IN CONCERT SUNDAY: Jars of Clay, Sunday night at 8, Salemby CNBCivic Center. Tickets, $16.50. 375-3004, (800) 288-2122. color.