Featuring Jars of Clay and MercyMe. If you are interested in attending, see Jeff Partain for more information.

Fishfest Artist Spotlight: Jars of Clay – Making A Difference 
Multi-Platinum and GRAMMY Award winning band Jars of Clay (Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason, and Matt Odmark) launched its career with the hit song, “Flood” in 1995. Since then, it’s amassed more than five million in career sales (5 Gold, 2 platinum and 1 double platinum certifications), three GRAMMY Awards, an American Music Award nod, 17 No.1 radio hits, and numerous film credits and BMI honors for songwriting and performing.

In June of 2007, the band blazed a new trail with the creation of their own label imprint, “Gray Matters” under the Nettwerk Music Group umbrella. Excited about the new venture, lead singer Dan Haseltine comments, “As we pursue the goal of making more music, and being creative in a spectrum of ways, ‘Gray Matters’ will be able to facilitate any of the ideas we want to bring to life.”

While celebrated for its music and writing, Jars of Clay is most concerned with the needs in Africa. Compelled to make a difference, Dan, Charlie, Stephen, and Matt founded Blood:Water Mission in early 2002. The first effort of this non-profit was the “1000 Wells Project” with a goal of raising funds to build, rebuild and repair 1000 wells in urban and rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. To date, over 300 projects have been constructed bringing clean water to more than 100,000 people. Throughout the years, Jars of Clay has proven to not only be talented musicians, but a multifaceted band that has the ability to evolve along side the music industry, and follow passions that help others across the world.

Transparent Productions

Fishfest Artist Spotlight: MercyMe 
MercyMe are veterans in the contemporary Christian music scene, having honed their craft since 1994. Toiling independently and paying their dues with six studio albums during their early existence, the band was signed to INO Records and released their 2001 double-platinum “Almost Here,” which yielded the Christian and mainstream hit, “I Can Only Imagine.” 

Since then, the band has released four additional studio records, achieving Gold status on three of them. The band are currently touring the Summer festival circuits across the country behind their latest studio album, “All That Is Within Me,” and also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the writing of “I Can Only Imagine.” In honor of this occassion, the band has released “10,” a CD/DVD set featuring the band’s 12 No. 1 singles as well as video, including footage of frontman Bart Millard telling the story behind the song that changed his life. As grave as the band can seem at first, they aren’t afraid to show their more humorous, silly side. They recently recorded a light-hearted cover of the late Michael Jackson’s song, “Thriller.” The video can be found on Youtube.

Transparent Productions