TERRE HAUTE —
As a guitarist, my old band’s highest profile gig was staged on a flatbed trailer at a small-town festival.
The organizers made us stop every 20 minutes — sometimes in mid-song — so people could hear a guy selling “the elixir of life” from a nearby stagecoach.
Humbling. Very humbling.
Thus, I can’t imagine winning a Grammy Award, let alone four Grammys. That’s how many Third Day has accumulated, so far, in 18 years together. That tally leads an impressive influx of Grammy winners to the Wabash Valley in the latter half of 2010. (Faith rockers Jars of Clay, who played last month at the Martinsville Agricultural Fair, have three Grammys, while country-folk singer Kathy Mattea, who’ll perform Nov. 13 at Rose-Hulman’s Hatfield Hall, has won two.)
Third Day plays a 7 p.m. concert Friday in Maryland Community Church on Terre Haute’s south side. Like Jars of Clay and Mattea, Third Day represents an impressive catch for the Valley. Their genre is Christian rock, but their reputation crosses those well-defined lines drawn by the music industry. One of their earliest singles, “Nothing At All,” hit the Billboard Top 40. Former “American Idol” contestant Chris Daughtry sang on one of their hits. They’ve appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and the “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” and were featured on “60 Minutes.”
Eight of their albums turned gold. Two reached platinum status. They’re in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame alongside the B-52’s, R.E.M., the Allman Brothers, Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield and Chet Atkins.
These guys are legit.
Unfortunately, people who’ve never ventured onto a faith-based radio station have never heard the strong musical chops possessed by Third Day, a band formed in Marietta, Ga., and heavily influenced by Lynyrd Skynyrd’s playing style.
“I think [the faith label] holds a lot of people back,” Third Day bassist Tai Anderson said by telephone Wednesday. “I think if people would listen to the bands — Third Day and others — they’d find out they like it.”
Some people don’t even know the genre exists, Anderson added.
“The majority of Americans aren’t aware there is a Christian [rock] music,” he said, “and if they do, they really couldn’t name a band. So there’s room for growth.”
He’s right. If mainstream rock fans spin their car radio to WBGL-FM 88.5, they might be surprised by the caliber of the artists and the catchiness and delivery of their songs. Third Day — comprised of Anderson, lead singer and songwriter Mac Powell, guitarist Mark Lee and drummer David Carr — cranked out a tune, “This Is Who I Am,” that earned a spot on the PlayStation game “NASCAR ’09.”
One ingredient of their success is that they’re friends. As Anderson spoke by phone, his five kids could be heard playing with Carr’s two children. They hang out with each other away from their gigs. Carr and Anderson have been buds since they were 11-year-olds. They’re wives are friends, too. They’re fellow bandmates, Powell and Lee, formed Third Day in a Marietta church in 1992.
That’s a stark contrast from the iconic, briefly reunited rock band, The Police, Anderson recently watched in concert.
“I don’t want to call them out,” he said, chuckling, “but I saw them on stage and said, ‘They’re not even looking at each other.’ And you know they’re traveling in separate jets and buses. That’s not a band.”
Which is not to say these four guys don’t disagree. Earlier this summer, they had “a passionate discussion,” Anderson quipped, about altering the arrangement of one of their most popular songs, “Blackbird.” But, because all four guys know the others care about the end result, those disagreements “are safe,” he said.
That end result is the second ingredient of their success — the message. Powell’s lyrics are direct yet conversational, and not heavy-handed. It’s subtle, but not shy. Though some mainstream artists avoid the Christian rock label, “because they don’t want to limit their audience,” as Anderson explained, Third Day embraces it. And they did so from the beginning, in that Georgia church.
“We thought we invented [Christian rock],” Anderson said, with a laugh, “like we said, ‘We’ll be a rock band, and we’ll sing about our faith.’”
Soon, they discovered they weren’t alone. The genre, though, lacked an innovative edge in the 1990s. The Christian bands’ sound trailed about 10 years behind those on the open charts. With Third Day and others in the mix, that changed. “Now, I think, that’s not the case,” Anderson said. “I think now it’s a relevant medium.”
Third Day added the Terre Haute performance to fill time between shows near St. Louis and in Michigan. The setting, in the Maryland church’s main hall, offers an intimacy they often can’t get in outdoor events or arenas. It also might be an accessible, affordable opportunity to connect with someone unfamiliar with their sound, or their beliefs.
“I know there are a lot of people who might not be Christians,” Anderson said, “but wherever they are, I think, Third Day can be a bridge for them, and might get them to start thinking about faith.”
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
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