Jars of Clay Takes Who We Are Instead To International Audiences

Multi-platinum, multi-Grammy and Dove Award-winning band, Jars of Clay continues their hard work in support of their sixth studio album Who We Are Instead this month with international appearances scheduled for South Africa, Sweden and Holland.

Jars of Clay (vocalist Dan Haseltine, guitarists Stephen Mason and Matt Odmark, and keyboardist Charlie Lowell) will play concerts in three of South Africa’s largest cities -- Cape Town (Aug. 7), Pretoria (Aug. 8) and Durban (Aug. 9) -- and will also be involved in several high-profile media appearances, both for entertainment purposes and to highlight the group’s humanitarian efforts for the HIV/AIDS ravaged country.

While in South Africa, members of the band will find themselves thrust in the middle of reality television, as they appear live on an episode of Project Fame on Tuesday, August 3. The show, a cross between Big Brother and American Idol, will feature Jars of Clay hanging out and jamming with ardent fan Jonathan Ross and other members of the cast. Highlights from Jars of Clay’s appearance will be posted to the show’s official website.

South African entertainment television channel eTV will follow the band as they tour the Living Hope Community projects, a non-profit organization dedicated to confronting the effect the HIV/AIDS pandemic is having on Cape Town, one of the country’s largest cities and its legislative capital. The eTV package will air Thursday, August 5.

“We in South Africa are so excited that a band of the stature of Jars of Clay are willing to contribute their time and skills to the huge humanitarian crisis of AIDS in Africa,” says Nurden Cross, Managing Director and General Manager of Sarepta Music, Provident Music Group’s South African distribution partner. “Jars’ tour is an historic first for international Christian music artists and will go a long way towards raising the profile of their music and message.”

The following week takes Jars of Clay to Europe, as the band is featured in two of the region’s largest Christian music festivals: Sweden’s Frizon Festival (Aug. 13) and The Netherlands’ Flevo Festival (Aug. 15). Both festivals attract more than 10,000 fans to three days of music and speakers, and serve as important launching pads for American artists to the European market.

“Following the successful European tours of Michael W. Smith and Third Day, we are thrilled to have Jars of Clay come over to the Frizon and Flevo Festivals,” says Hans Groeneveld, president of GMI Music Partners, PLG’s European distribution partner.

The members of Jars of Clay are also planning to use the European leg as a vision trip for their Blood:Water Mission directive. While on their most recent American tour, Jars of Clay held symposiums on college campuses in select markets on the tour to give college students and a greater understanding of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa and other third world countries. Helping to support the symposiums are GSAC (Global Student AIDS Campaign), World Vision, African Leadership, DATA (Debt, AIDS and Trade for Africa) and Essential Records. For more information on Blood:Water Mission, visit the organization’s website.

Jars of Clay lead singer, Dan Haseltine, comments, “It’s a great privilege to return to South Africa. Rarely has our passion for loving people in the midst of injustice and suffering connected so well with our love for playing music. We will get a chance to do both, and my hope is that we will return to the U.S. with a greater sense of urgency in our work to connect the people of America to the suffering people of Africa.”