''Christmas Songs'' is the eighth full-length studio album and first

Christmas album Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

from Jars of Clay, that was released on October 16, 2007, through Gray Matters/

Nettwerk Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk Management, and Nettwerk One Publishing. Established in 1984, the Vancouver-based company was created by Nettwerk principals Terry McBride and Mark Jowett as a record ...

. This is the first ever release from the band through their newly created Gray Matters imprint via Nettwerk Music Group.

Background

In 2006, Jars of Clay began to seek a new recording contract as their then-current contract with

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

's Christian sub-label Essential Records was due to end a few releases later. The group then decided to create their own label named Gray Matters and formed a partnership with the label and imprint label Nettwerk. The group decided to record their first full length Christmas album to debut on this label. The group previously has released one Christmas EP named '' Drummer Boy'', which contained the classic Christmas carol "

The Little Drummer Boy "The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 19 ...

". The group also contributed their original Christmas song "Bethlehem Town" to the Christmas edition of the '' City on a Hill'' series. In 2004, Jars appeared on the collection entitled '' Maybe This Christmas Tree'' with their lighter "Christmas for Cowboys" alongside artists such as Lisa Loeb, Ivy and Copeland. More recently, in 2005, Jars returned to the Christmas classics to cover "

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", sometimes rendered as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", is an 1849 poem and Christmas carol written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts. In 1850, Sears' lyrics were set ...

" on the collection ''Come Let Us Adore Him: A Christmas Worship Experience''. In 2007 as the contract with Sony BMG ended, the group began recording ''Christmas Songs'', selecting a range of established and well known Christmas Carols, some lesser known songs and some original songs to present for this project. The album was recorded in one-take recording sessions, a recording method only used once before by the band, in their prior studio album ''

Good Monsters ''Good Monsters'' is the seventh full-length studio album from Jars of Clay, released by Essential Records on September 5, 2006. This is their last album of new material from Essential Records and it is said to be lyrically their most aggressi ...

''. This recording method meant that the majority of the time spent on the album was spent in pre-production, arranging the songs, practicing the songs before entering the studio to record them.

Track listing

USB Stick Version

''Christmas Songs'' was also released via

USB stick A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since first ...

format. The flash drive is reusable and has a capacity of 512 MB. The USB sticks were initially only available for purchase at concerts, but has since been added to the band's official online store. Each USB stick contains the following: * ''Christmas Songs'' album in its entirety (

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

files at 192 kbit/s bitrate) * Acoustic version of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" * Full-length music video for "Love Came Down at Christmas" ( M4V video format) * Readings of "First Breath", "Life As Advent", "The Burden of Hope" and "Who Gets to be Santa" from the book ''Peace Is Here'', written by members of Jars of Clay * Live video performances of "Hibernation Day" and "Drummer Boy" from the Gospel Music Channel's ''Christmas at Union Station'' special

Awards

In 2008, the album was nominated for a

Dove Award A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Awards ...

for Christmas Album of the Year at the

39th GMA Dove Awards The 39th Annual GMA Dove Awards presentation was held on April 23, 2008 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2007. The show was held at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. Nominations were announced on February 14, ...

Credits

Jars of Clay *

Dan Haseltine Daniel Paul Haseltine (born January 12, 1973) is an American singer best known as lead vocalist for Christian alternative folk rock group Jars of Clay. Haseltine has performed vocals, piano, accordion, percussion and melodica, while with Jars of ...

– vocals *

Charlie Lowell Charles Daniel Lowell (born October 21, 1973)Jars WorldJars World: Music: Tim. Date of Birth noted. Retrieved 9 August 2007. is an American pianist most known for being the pianist and keyboardist for Christian alternative folk rock group Jars o ...

– keyboards, pianos, backing vocals * Stephen Mason – guitars, backing vocals *

Matt Odmark Matthew Thomas Odmark (born January 25, 1974) is an American musician most known for being a guitarist for Christian alternative folk rock group Jars of Clay. Biography Matthew Odmark was raised in Rochester, New York where he attended McQuaid ...

– guitars, backing vocals Additional musicians * Gabe Ruschival – keyboards, bass, percussion,

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

, bells, backing vocals * Jeremy Lutito – drums, percussion, bells, vibraphone, backing vocals * Mitch Dane –

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

* Sam Levine –

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, woodwinds * Jeff Bailey – trumpet * Gil Long –

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

* Jennifer Kummer –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

* John Catchings – cello * Carole Rabinowitz – cello * Jim Grosjean – viola * Kristin Wilkinson – viola * Conni Ellisor – violin * Pamela Sixfin – violin * Alan Umstead – violin * Tom Howard – horn and string arrangements * Carl Gorodetzky – orchestra leader *

Christine Denté Out of the Grey is a husband-and-wife Contemporary Christian music project consisting of Scott and Christine Denté. Christine provides lead vocals, while Scott plays guitars and sings background, along with the occasional lead vocals. They have r ...

– vocals Production * Jars of Clay – producer * Mitch Dane – recording, engineer *

Vance Powell Vance Powell is an American six-time Grammy Award winning record producer, engineer and mixer. His credits include Phish, Chris Stapleton, Jack White, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, The White Stripes, Arctic Monke ...

– recording, engineer, mixing * Mike Odmark – recording assisting, assistant engineer * Mike Paragone – recording assistant * Joshua Vance Smith – recording assistant, assistant engineer, mix assistant * Richard Dodd – mastering at RichardDodd.com, Nashville, Tennessee * Christie Little – package illustrations and design * Recorded, engineered and mixed at Sputnik Sound, Nashville, Tennessee * Additional recording at East Iris Studios, Nashville, Tennessee

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas Songs (Jars of Clay Album) Jars of Clay albums Gray Matters albums Christmas albums by American artists 2007 Christmas albums Alternative rock Christmas albums