how did the band start? what was the first song?

Jars of Clay began at Greenville College in Greenville, IL when four young lads met and discovered friendship through music. They were majors in "Contemporary Christian Music", a somewhat recent department in the college.

Charlie Lowell, Dan Haseltine and Matt Bronleewe had been there for the year of 1992 and played in various bands as well as producing their own studio projects.

These bands included Chrysalis, Jazon, Yellow #7, Second Level, and many other school bands involving students from the CCM department as well as others. When Stephen Mason appeared on the scene in september of 1993, and had similar interests in music, the guys decided to write a song together, "just for fun". Dan had met Stephen because he had a Toad the Wet Sprocket shirt on, a band which they both admired for their unique sound.

The band wrote and recorded a song called "Fade to Grey", which included many drum loops and samples, a very techno-oriented song. It was simply a studio project for credit in a recording class. Their friends enjoyed the song and they performed it in late October for a college cafe called the "Underground Cafe", which they had put together to raise money for homeless shelters and jail ministries.

The "Underground" was the dormitory that the vast majority of music majors inhabited. The band continued classes and when they found more time, decided to play "Little Drummer Boy" for the Underground Cafe on December 7th, as it was nearing Christmas time. A strange and distorted version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was also played impromptu this evening, to the tune of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Following Christmas vacation, the four of them decided they'd like to write additional songs to add to their live repertoire and satisfy the requirements of their recording studio class, but thought it would be appropriate to give a name to these collaborations.

Charlie recalled a Bible verse he had read which discussed the frailty of man, and the irony that this amazing life has been breathed into our frail, physical bodies by our Lord. This passage, which related the struggles of man and the testing of our wills and bodies, which ultimately provides us the strength to endure the hardships of life, included the phrase "Jars of Clay". The phrase was penned by the Apostle Paul, and was from 2 Corinthians, chapter four verse seven:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us".

The band thought that was a good way to keep themselves humble- to have a band name that would force them to continually realize that all of their blessings had come from God, including this talent to write songs that their classmates enjoyed. So in January of 1994, Jars of Clay was born.