1996The first single from the debut album released to Christian radio was "Flood", and lingered at number one for a long time. The band met with high critical acclaim in numerous Christian magazine articles and other sources due to the unique harmonies and instrumentation on the album as well as their extreme honesty and relational lyrics discussing real life situations and faith in God who pulls us through difficult challenges. Meanwhile, secular radio stations somehow caught on to the popularity of Flood and some of them began to play it. This is when Essential Records decided to use parent label Silvertone to promote the album and send out CD singles to radio stations. Many of the radio stations loved the single and began to put it into regular rotation because after it was played, the phones would ring constantly with inquisitive listeners wondering where the song came from.
Jars of Clay had now played a few festivals in the summer of 1995 and decided to sign up for another tour opening for PFR and Brent Bourgeois. Following this tour, they learned that they had been invited to open for Michael W. Smith on his national tour in early 1996 and accepted the invitation with gratitude. A concert at The Foundry in Nashville was held to raise money for the Child Abuse Center of Middle Tennessee and the Drummer Boy Christmas EP was released to raise money for this agency as well. Special guests at the concert included Phil Keaggy and Cindy Morgan.
1996 was the year of intense success for the band. "Flood" hit the #1 position on numerous secular radio stations due to its popularity in the northwestern U.S. where many alternative bands were popular, and the album remained in the top 60 albums for much of the year, also remaining in Billboard's Top 200 albums for the entire 52 week cycle. The album went 'gold' and shortly after attained platinum status. The debut album has now sold around 2,000,000 copies. The Michael W. Smith shows were very successful and the band promoted the album heavily by performing and interviewing at many in-store appearances and secular radio shows. They continued to tour on their own through the summer of 1996 and decided to take the music to the club circuit where secular listeners could feel comfortable seeing the band where they see their other favorite bands. This became an intense ministry but also brought with it much sarcasm and disappointment for the Christian audiences who sometimes accused them of "going secular" although nothing about their lyrics, music or spiritual lives had changed. Their goals changed gradually as they realized that they could minister to an audience that no one else could seem to reach. The band set up a very professional headlining tour of theaters such as The Roxy and House of Blues theaters for autumn 1996. They purchased their own sound and lights and brought Roddy Chiong, a violinist, on tour, opening the shows with a classical violin piece and using backdrops such as folded curtains, oriental rugs and candleabras. The Samples opened the concerts for the first couple weeks and were shortly after dropped due to an incompatibility with Jars as well as their audience. The Gufs were a nice opening band for the concerts, and many other bands opened shows for Jars during this time as well, including Sarah Masen, Duncan Sheik, Matchbox 20 and Sarah Jahn.
By the end of 1996, the band was worn out from touring and in need of some new material for their sophomore effort, so they began writing songs to use for a new album. They interviewed many producers and decided on Steve Lipson, who had produced Simple Minds, Prefab Sprout, Annie Lennox and many other releases. Lipson came over and helped to engineer the album at Xanadu studios outside of Nashville. Following this period they continued to tour sporadically and take occasional trips to London where Lipson resides, to mix the album in his studio. This was mostly done in a somewhat dreary part of England, when the guys were apart from their wives - thus the occasional dark sounds & themes. Although the band was very happy with the album, it did not sell as many copies as the first (although it still went platinum). If anything, it was too perfect or "overproduced" for the ears of most pop-radio listeners. It did yield the normal amount of Christian radio hits and Five Candles & Crazy Times could occasionally be heard on secular radio as well. The band was also approached by many motion picture companies during this period, and were invited to participate in the soundtracks for various movies. These included Hard Rain (Flood), Liar Liar (Five Candles), Long Kiss Goodnight (The Chair), Jack Frost (Five Candles), and the Prince of Egypt (Everything in Between) soundtracks. The Much Afraid era also brought the guys a Grammy Award for best Gospel album of the year, and they had the privileged of playing Fade to Grey with an orchestra at the '98 Dove Awards. In addition, they launched a few major tours: ‘The Bubblemaker's Dream Tour’ (Fall '97/Spring '98), and ‘Tour 101: Back to Basics’ college tour (Fall '98/Spring '99). They also scheduled a special concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville with the Nashville String Machine, where they recorded a special fan-club only 2-CD release entitled Stringtown. This helped them to launch a world-wide fan club which has had great success ever since. The most important personal events during this time period were the weddings of all of the band members. Stephen Mason also entered the next phase of his life as a dad. International traveling also became a regular part of the job. The Jars did tours in Australia and Singapore in support of Much Afraid, and also opened a Franklin Graham crusade in Aberdeen, Scotland, and a couple dates in London including the Shepherd's Bush Empire.
In 1999 the band wrote the album If I Left the Zoo. Aside from tours, writing the new album, and their new marriages, the Jars had a tiny spare amount of time left to help out other artists as well. Most of them appeared on Jonathan Noel's "Hand", and Charlie played some accordian on TV appearances with Sixpence None the Richer. Joe Porter was added as a new drummer to replace Scott Savage, who pursued a career as drummer for Jaci Velasquez, due to musical differences with the rest of the band. They remain great friends and Scott has even substituted for Joe on occasion. If I Left the Zoo was recorded with producer Dennis Herring (Counting Crows, Innocence Mission, Cracker) in Oxford, MS. The title refers to the earth as a zoo, and the album, like most Jars works, is filled with metaphors and lyrical imagery. The title refers to what could potentially be accomplished if we were to leave our present comfort zones. Written from a standpoint that everyone can relate to, there is a minimum of faith-related buzzwords, although the lyrics are based on strong faith principles and references to scripture and the person of Christ, and the grace we've been given.
-Written by Andy Lowell, brother of JOC member Charlie Lowell, and Steve Carlson.