Jars of Clay began at Greenville College, Illinois, in 1992 (though they weren't using that name at this stage). In those early days, Charlie Lowell and Dan Haseltine were joined by after discovering they shared similar musical tastes, and began working on various studio projects as well as performing with different college bands. In 1993, Stephen Mason was accepted into the college due to the strength of his audition piece 'Frail' (then an instrumental guitar track), and met Dan because of a Toad The Wet Sprocket t-shirt he was wearing, the two sharing an admiration for that band's unique sound. This original foursome then decided to write and record a song together purely for credit in a recording class. That song, 'Fade To Grey' became popular throughout the college, and the band performed it the 'Underground Cafe'. After the success of this performance, they decided to write more songs to add to their repertoire as well as to continue satisfying their course criteria. They also decided that if they were going to continue performing, they needed to give themselves a name. Charlie recalled a verse from 2 Corinthians 4:7 that included the phrase 'Jars of Clay' and the band decided that this would be a good way to remind themselves to stay humble. In 1994, Jars of Clay was born.
Also in 1994, Charlie suggested to the band that they enter a talent contest he had seen advertised in a CCM magazine. On April 27th, Jars of Clay performed at the Gospel Music Association Spotlight Competition, and met with great popular and critical praise. April continued to be busy as the band released its demo album "Frail
Name Vars
- Jars
- Jars Of Clay
- Jars of Clay
Members
- Matt Bronleewe
- Dan Haseltine
- Matt Odmark
- Stephen Mason
- Charlie Lowell