Clay is a naturally occurring aluminium silicate composed primarily of fine-grained minerals. Clay deposits are mostly composed of clay minerals, a subtype of phyllosilicate minerals, which impart plasticity and harden when fired or dried; they also may contain variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure by polar attraction. Organic materials which do not impart plasticity may also be a part of clay deposits.

Formation

Clay minerals are typically formed over long periods of time by the gradual chemical weathering of rocks, usually silicate-bearing, by low concentrations of carbonic acid and other diluted solvents. These solvents, usually acidic, migrate through the weathering rock after leaching through upper weathered layers. In addition to the weathering process, some clay minerals are formed by hydrothermal activity. Clay deposits may be formed in place as residual deposits in soil, but thick deposits usually are formed as the result of a secondary sedimentary deposition process after they have been eroded and transported from their original location of formation. Clay deposits are typically associated with very low energy depositional environments such as large lakes and marine deposits.

Primary clays, also known as kaolins, are located at the site of formation. Secondary clay deposits have been moved by erosion and water from their primary location.

Definition

Clays are distinguished from other fine-grained soils by differences in size and mineralogy. Silts, which are fine-grained soils that do not include clay minerals, tend to have larger particle sizes than clays, but there is some overlap in both particle size and other physical properties, and there are many naturally occurring deposits which include both silts and clays. The distinction between silt and clay varies by discipline. Geologists and soil scientists usually consider the separation to occur at a particle size of 2 µm (clays being finer than silts), sedimentologists often use 4-5 μm, and colloid chemists use 1 μm. Geotechnical engineers distinguish between silts and clays based on the plasticity properties of the soil, as measured by the soils' Atterberg Limits. ISO 14688 grades clay particles as being smaller than 2 μm and silts larger.

Grouping

Depending on the academic source, there are three or four main groups of clays: kaolinite, montmorillonite-smectite, illite, and chlorite. Chlorites are not always considered a clay, sometimes being classified as a separate group within the phyllosilicates. There are approximately 30 different types of "pure" clays in these categories, but most "natural" clays are mixtures of these different types, along with other weathered minerals.

Varve (or ''varved clay'') is clay with visible annual layers, formed by seasonal differences in erosion and organic content. This type of deposit is common in former glacial lakes. When glacial lakes are formed there is very little movement of the water that makes the lake, and these eroded soils settle on the lake bed. This allows such an even distribution on the different layers of clay.

Quick clay is a unique type of marine clay indigenous to the glaciated terrains of Norway, Canada, Northern Ireland, and Sweden. It is a highly sensitive clay, prone to liquefaction, which has been involved in several deadly landslides.

Historical and modern uses

Clays exhibit plasticity when mixed with water in certain proportions. When dry, clay becomes firm and when fired in a kiln, permanent physical and chemical changes occur. These reactions, among other changes, cause the clay to be converted into a ceramic material. Because of these properties, clay is used for making pottery items, both utilitarian and decorative. Different types of clay, when used with different minerals and firing conditions, are used to produce earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay, and one of the earliest artifacts ever uncovered is a drinking vessel made of sun-dried clay. Depending on the content of the soil, clay can appear in various colors, from a dull gray to a deep orange-red.

Clay tablets were used as the first known writing medium, inscribed with cuneiform script through the use of a blunt reed called a stylus.

Clays sintered in fire were the first form of ceramic. Bricks, cooking pots, art objects, dishware, and even musical instruments such as the ocarina can all be shaped from clay before being fired. Clay is also used in many industrial processes, such as paper making, cement production, and chemical filtering. Clay is also often used in the manufacture of pipes for smoking tobacco. Until the late 20th century bentonite clay was widely used as a mold binder in the manufacture of sand castings.

Clay, being relatively impermeable to water, is also used where natural seals are needed, such as in the cores of dams, or as a barrier in landfills against toxic seepage (lining the landfill, preferably in combination with geotextiles).

Recent studies have investigated clay's absorption capacities in various applications, such as the removal of heavy metals from waste water and air purification.

Medical and agricultural uses

A traditional use of clay as medicine goes back to prehistoric times. An example is Armenian bole, which is used to soothe an upset stomach, similar to the way parrots (and later, humans) in South America originally used it. Kaolin clay and attapulgite have been used as anti-diarrheal medicines.

Clay as a building material

Clay is one of the oldest building materials on Earth, among other ancient, naturally-occurring geologic materials such as stone and organic materials like wood. Between one-half and two-thirds of the world's population, in traditional societies as well as developed countries, still lives or works in a building made with clay as an essential part of its load-bearing structure. Also a primary ingredient in many natural building techniques, clay is used to create adobe, cob, cordwood, and rammed earth structures

See also

Bentonite Ceramic Clay (industrial plasticine) Clay animation Clay court Clay pit Geophagy (eating of soils, including eating of clay) Expansive clay Graham Cairns-Smith, proposed the 'clay theory' of abiogenesis

London Clay Modelling clay Paperclay Particle size Plasticine Pottery Vertisol

Footnotes

References

Clay mineral nomenclature ''American Mineralogist''.

Ehlers, Ernest G. and Blatt, Harvey (1982). 'Petrology, Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic' San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-1279-2.

Hillier S. (2003) Clay Mineralogy. pp 139–142 In: Middleton G.V., Church M.J., Coniglio M., Hardie L.A. and Longstaffe F.J.(Editors) Encyclopedia of sediments and sedimentary rocks. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.

External links

Building the Phyllosilicates University of New Hampshire

The Clay Minerals Group of the Mineralogical Society

Clay Whistles

Information about clays used in the UK pottery industry

The Clay Minerals Society

Plasticity of clay

Organic Matter in Clays

Category:Types of soil Category:Sculpture materials Category:Ceramic materials Category:Natural materials Category:Sedimentology Category:Sediments Category:Phyllosilicates

ar:صلصال an:Archila (sedimento) ay:Llink'i laq'a be:Гліна be-x-old:Гліна bs:Glina bg:Глина ca:Argila cv:Тăм cs:Jíl da:Ler de:Tonminerale et:Savi el:Άργιλος es:Arcilla eo:Argilo eu:Buztin fa:رس fr:Argile fy:Klaai gl:Arxila hr:Glina (tlo) io:Argilo id:Lempung is:Leir it:Argilla he:חרסית jv:Lempung kk:Саздар ht:Ajil lv:Māls lt:Molis hu:Agyag ms:Tanah liat nl:Klei ja:粘土 no:Leire nn:Leire oc:Argila pl:Glina pt:Argila ro:Argilă qu:Ch'aqu ru:Глина sco:Cley sq:Deltina scn:Argilla simple:Clay ss:Lubumba sk:Íl sr:Глина sh:Gline fi:Savi sv:Lera tl:Luwad th:ดินเหนียว tr:Kil uk:Глина ur:سفال vec:Crèa vi:Đất sét vls:Klyte bat-smg:Muolis zh:黏土

{{infobox person | name	Clay Shirky | image Clay Shirky.jpg | caption Clay Shirky at the 2006 O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference | birth_date | birth_place Columbia, Missouri | other_names | known_for Writing | occupation Writer, consultant, lecturer }}

Clay Shirky (born 1964) is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He has a joint appointment at New York University (NYU) as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and Assistant Arts Professor in the New Media focused graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). His courses address, among other things, the interrelated effects of the topology of social networks and technological networks, how our networks shape culture and vice-versa.

He has written and been interviewed extensively about the Internet since 1996. His columns and writings have appeared in ''Business 2.0'', the ''New York Times'', the ''Wall Street Journal'', the ''Harvard Business Review'' and ''Wired''.

Shirky divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His consulting practice is focused on the rise of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, web services, and wireless networks that provide alternatives to the wired client–server infrastructure that characterizes the World Wide Web.

In ''The Long Tail'', Chris Anderson calls Shirky "a prominent thinker on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies."

Early years and career

In 1986 he graduated ''cum laude'' from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine art.

In 1990 he founded in New York City a theater company, Hard Place Theater, in which he created and directed several "non-fiction" theater pieces using only found materials such as government documents, transcripts and cultural records. One project titled "United Airline," included the transcript of the air-to-ground conversations during a plane crash, interspersed with quotes about flying and falling.

During the 1990s in New York City he also worked as a lighting designer for numerous experimental theater and dance companies, including the Wooster Group, Elevator Repair Service and Dana Reitz.

In the early 1990s, Shirky was vice-president of the New York chapter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and wrote technology guides for Ziff Davis. He appeared as an expert witness on Internet culture in ''Shea v. Reno'', a case cited in the U. S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Communications Decency Act in 1996.

Shirky was the original Professor of New Media in the Media Studies department at Hunter College, where he created the department's first undergraduate and graduate offerings in new media, and helped design the current MFA in Integrated Media Arts program.

In the fall of 2010, Shirky served as the Visiting Morrow Lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School instructing a course titled: "New Media and Public Action". Shirky currently lives in New York with his dog, George.

Views

In his book ''Here Comes Everybody'' Shirky explains how he has long spoken in favor of crowdsourcing and collaborative efforts online. He uses the phrase "the Internet runs on love" to describe the nature of such collaborations. In the book, he discusses the ways in which the action of a group adds up to something more than just aggregated individual action.

He points to four key steps. The first is sharing, a sort of “me-first collaboration” in which the social effects are aggregated after the fact; people share links, URLs, tags, and eventually come together around a type. This type of sharing is a reverse of the so-called old order of sharing, where participants congregate first and then share (examples include Flickr, and Delicious). The second is conversation, that is, the synchronization of people with each other and the coming together to learn more about something and to get better at it. The third is collaboration, in which a group forms under the purpose of some common effort. It requires a division of labor, and teamwork. It can often be characterized by people wanting to fix a market failure, and is motivated by increasing accessibility.

The fourth and final step is collective action, which Shirky says is “mainly still in the future.” The key point about collective action is that the fate of the group as a whole becomes important. In a presentation called "Gin, Television, and Social Surplus", Shirky popularized the concept of ''cognitive surplus'', the time freed from watching television which can be enormously productive when applied to other social endeavors. He also notes that we are experiencing an era where people like to produce and share just as much, if not more than they like to consume. Since technology has made the producing and sharing possible, he argues that we will see a new era of participation that will lead to big change.

Shirky has also written about "algorithmic authority," which describes the process through which unverified information is vetted for its trustworthiness through multiple sources.

The Shirky Principle

In April, 2010, Kevin Kelly cited the phrase "Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution," and called it the "Shirky Principle", as the phrasing reminded him of the clarity of the Peter Principle.

Response to Evgeny Morozov

In March 2011, Shirky responded to questions raised by Evgeny Morozov about consulting he had done for the country Libya. Shirky explained that he had been invited in 2007 to speak in Boston to Libya's IT Minister. Shirky stated that the talk was "about using social software to improve citizen engagement in coastal towns. The idea was that those cities would be more economically successful if local policies related to the tourist trade were designed by the locals themselves." Shirky added that nothing came of the project beyond his initial talk. He defended his underlying desire to expand representative government in Libya and concluded that "the best reason to believe that social media can aid citizens in their struggle to make government more responsive is that both citizens and governments believe that."

Bibliography

''The Internet by E-Mail'' (1994) - ISBN 1-56276-240-0

''Voices from the Net'' (1995) - ISBN 1-56276-303-2

''P2P Networking Overview'' (2001) - ISBN 0-596-00185-1

''Planning for Web Services: Obstacles and Opportunities'' (2003) - ISBN 0-596-00364-1

Selected Articles in ''The Best Software Writing I'', Joel Spolsky ed. (2005) - ISBN 1-59059-500-9

* ''A Group is its Own Worst Enemy'' by Clay Shirky

* ''Group as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software'' by Clay Shirky

''Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations'' (2008) - ISBN 978-1594201530

''Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age'' (2010) - ISBN 978-1594202537

See also

Collective action

Footnotes

References

Clay Shirky's Bio

External links

Clay Shirky's homepage

Clay Shirky’s writings on the O'Reilly Network

Profile and videos at TED.com

Profile and talks at Fora.tv

''Socially Intelligent Computing'' A Dialogue with Daniel Goleman

Ontology is Overrated: Links, Tags, and Post-hoc Metadata - a presentation (mp3) from the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference held in San Diego, California, March 14–17, 2005.

- Colloquium @ NYU.

Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008

Video (and audio) of interview/discussion with Clay Shirky by Will Wilkinson on Bloggingheads.tv

Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom A talk about journalism and pay walls.

Category:American technology writers Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:New York University faculty Category:Internet culture Category:Technology evangelists Category:Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board members Category:Yale University alumni Category:Web 2.0

da:Clay Shirky de:Clay Shirky fr:Clay Shirky nl:Clay Shirky pt:Clay Shirky zh:克莱·舍基

Background	solo_singer
Name	Clay Aiken
Birth name	Clayton Holmes Grissom
Birth date	November 30, 1978
Birth place	Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Occupation	Singer, actor
Label	RCA (2003–08)Decca (2009–11)
Years active	2003–present
Genre	Pop, pop rock
Website	clayaiken.com }}

Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken (né Grissom; born November 30, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program ''American Idol'' in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album ''Measure of a Man'' was released in October 2003. He released four more albums on the RCA label: ''Merry Christmas with Love'' (2004), ''A Thousand Different Ways'' (2006), and the Christmas EP, ''All is Well'' (2006). His fourth studio album (the first album of original material since 2003's ''Measure of a Man''), ''On My Way Here'' was released on May 6, 2008.

After the release of ''On My Way Here'', Aiken left RCA and later signed with Decca Records. His first album with Decca, ''Tried and True'', was released June 1, 2010.

In the years following his ''American Idol'' appearance, Aiken has launched nine tours, authored a ''New York Times'' best-selling book ''Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life'' with Allison Glock, and was the executive producer for a 2004 televised Christmas special, ''A Clay Aiken Christmas''. He has been a frequent talk show guest, particularly on ''The Tonight Show'' and ''Jimmy Kimmel Live''. He appeared as a guest star on ''Scrubs'' and participated in comedy skits on various shows.

Aiken created the National Inclusion Project (formerly the Bubel/Aiken Foundation) in 2003, accepted a UNICEF ambassadorship in 2004, and in 2006 was appointed for a two-year term to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

Aiken made his Broadway debut playing the role of Sir Robin in Monty Python's ''Spamalot'' in January 2008. His run ended in May but he rejoined the cast as Sir Robin in September and remained through January 4, 2009.

Personal life

Clay Aiken was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a young boy, Aiken sang in the Raleigh Boychoir, and as a teenager, he sang in school choirs, church choir, musicals and local theatre productions. After high school, he sang lead with a local band, Just By Chance, cohosting and performing with the band at "Just by Chance and Friends" shows in Dunn, North Carolina. He was also MC and performer at the Johnston Community College Country Showcase in Smithfield, and at the North Carolina Music Connection and Hometown Music Connection shows in Garner, and Benson. He performed the national anthem numerous times for the Raleigh IceCaps and the Carolina Hurricanes hockey teams, and performed it at the 2011 NHL All-Star Game at the RBC Center in Raleigh.

Three demo albums of Aiken's vocals were created before ''American Idol'' with the aid of studio time given as a birthday gift by his mother: a cassette called ''Look What Love Has Done'' (by Clayton Grissom), a cassette and CD entitled ''Redefined'' (by Clayton Aiken), and a CD that combined some songs from each of the previous demos:'' "Look What Love Has Done, Vol 2"'' (by Clay Aiken). Estranged from his birth father Vernon Grissom and with his mother's and grandfather Alvis Aiken's permission, at the age of 19 he legally changed his surname from Grissom to his mother Faye's maiden name, Aiken.

Aiken attended Raleigh's Leesville Road High School and took courses at Campbell University before enrolling at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He found his interest in special education while directing YMCA children's camps as a teenager, and at age 19, he served as a substitute teacher for a classroom of students with autism at Brentwood Elementary School in Raleigh. While attending college in Charlotte, he took a part-time job as an assistant to a boy with autism, and it was this child's mother, Diane Bubel, who urged him to audition for ''American Idol.'' Although his ''American Idol'' activities temporarily delayed his academic pursuits, Aiken completed his course work while on tour and graduated with a bachelor's degree in special education in December 2003.

On August 8, 2008, Aiken announced, on his personal blog, the birth of his son in North Carolina: "My dear friend, Jaymes, and I are so excited to announce the birth of Parker Foster Aiken". The child's mother, Jaymes Foster, is the sister of record producer David Foster and the executive producer of Aiken's last three albums on the RCA label. "The little man is healthy, happy, and as loud as his daddy," Aiken wrote. "Mama Jaymes is doing quite well also." Aiken said in his book, ''Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life,'' that "It's a Southern tradition to be given your first name from your grandmama's maiden name." Aiken's middle name came from his paternal grandmother's maiden name; using instead the married surnames of their mothers, he and Foster followed that tradition in choosing their son's name.

After several years of public speculation, Aiken disclosed that he is gay in a September 2008 interview with ''People'' magazine. In April 2009, Aiken was honored by the Family Equality Council advocacy group at its annual benefit dinner in New York City.

On November 18, 2010, Clay went to Washington, D.C. at a Capitol Hill briefing talking about anti-gay bullying.

''American Idol''

Aiken had filled out an application to participate in the reality show ''Amazing Race'' when a friend of his insisted that he try out for ''American Idol'' instead. Television viewers first glimpsed Aiken during the audition episodes at the beginning of ''American Idol's'' second season. The show's judges first saw Aiken as a nerdy type unlikely to be any kind of idol, but after hearing him sing Heatwave's "Always and Forever" decided to advance him to the next round. The clip of the judges' surprise during this audition performance was replayed many times over the course of the competition.

Aiken made it to the round of 32 before being cut from the show, but he was invited to return for the "Wild Card" round; his performance of Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" sent him on to the final 12 as the viewer's choice. While noted for his performance of ballads, such as Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire", his upbeat performances, including The Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup", were also appreciated. Aiken received enough votes every week to keep him out of the bottom three. Part of his appeal was his "geek to chic" transformation in appearance. "I looked like Opie," Aiken said to People magazine regarding his appearance at his American Idol audition in 2002. He replaced his glasses with contact lenses and agreed to let the show's stylists change his hair style. With longer, flat ironed, spiky hair and a penchant for wearing striped shirts, Aiken had established a trademark look by the final American Idol season 2 show.

On May 21, 2003, Aiken came in a close second to Ruben Studdard, who won the contest by 134,000 votes out of more than 24,000,000 votes cast. The result was controversial, as some hypothesized that ''Idol'''s voting system was incapable of handling the number of attempted calls. In an interview prior to the start of the fifth season of ''American Idol'', Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed for the first time that Aiken had led the fan voting every week from the Wild Card week to the finale, when the possibly-random voting result gave Studdard the win. Though officially, Aiken was the show's "first runner-up," he has since gone on to be the second season's best-selling star.

''Rolling Stone'' featured Aiken on the cover of its July 2003 issue. In the cover article Aiken said, "One thing I've found of people in the public eye, either you're a womanizer or you've got to be gay. Since I'm neither one of those, people are completely concerned about me." In subsequent interviews he expressed frustration over continued questions about his sexual orientation, telling ''People'' magazine in 2006, "It doesn't matter what I say. People are going to believe what they want."

Aiken made a surprise appearance on the final show of American Idol season 5, when failed auditioner Michael Sandecki returned to the show to receive a "Golden Idol" award for Best Impersonator for his Clay Aiken-like appearance. Aiken appeared without introduction in a well-tailored designer suit and longer, darker hair with bangs, looking so different that many did not recognize him until he began to sing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me." The second season of the ''American Idol Rewind'' series (2007) was narrated by Aiken.

Clay is reportedly one of the top 10 earners of ''Idol,'' earning an estimated $1.5 million a year.

Music

2003-2004: ''Measure of a Man''

On October 14, 2003, Aiken released his first solo album, ''Measure of a Man'', which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was, with 613,000 copies sold in its first week, the highest-selling debut for a solo artist in 10 years, and to date the highest debut of any Idol. The album received RIAA Double Platinum certification on November 17, 2003 (a Double Platinum plaque was presented to Aiken by Clive Davis on October 22, 2003, during ''Good Morning America''). The album spawned both the hit single "Invisible" and his first hit song, "This Is the Night" (both co-written by British songwriter Chris Braide). Later that year, Aiken won the Fan's Choice Award at the American Music Awards ceremony, and his CD single "This Is the Night/Bridge Over Troubled Water" won the Billboard award for the Best-Selling Single of 2003.

2004-2006: ''Merry Christmas With Love''

On November 16, 2004, Aiken released a holiday album titled ''Merry Christmas with Love'', which set a new record for fastest-selling holiday album in the Soundscan era (since 1991). The album debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 and tied Céline Dion's record for the highest debut by a holiday album in the history of ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Merry Christmas with Love'' sold over 1,000,000 copies retail in 6 weeks and was the best-selling holiday album of 2004, receiving RIAA Platinum certification on Jan. 6, 2005.

2006-2008: ''A Thousand Different Ways'' and ''All Is Well''

Aiken's second studio album, ''A Thousand Different Ways'', was released September 19, 2006. He worked on the album under the guidance of Canadian producer and A&R; executive Jaymes Foster. The album contains ten cover songs and four new songs, one of which Aiken co-wrote. Clive Davis is credited with the cover concept. One additional song, "Lover All Alone", written by Aiken and David Foster, is included with the album on iTunes. Debuting at #2 on the Billboard chart, ''A Thousand Different Ways'' made Aiken the fourth artist ever to have his first three albums debut in the Top 5 and scan over 200,000 in the first week.

Aiken's second Christmas album, ''All Is Well'' (an EP of four Christmas songs), was released exclusively to Walmart on November 28, 2006, and was released to iTunes as a digital download in December 2007.

2008-2009: ''On My Way Here''

Aiken stated in an April 2007 interview with ''People'' that he was planning a new album, and during his May 2007 appearance on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'', he mentioned that he was in Los Angeles interviewing producers for the new album. Aiken found a song, "On My Way Here", written by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, that struck a chord with him and became the inspiration for the album's theme in addition to the album title. For a cohesive sound, Aiken chose Mark 'Kipper' Eldridge to produce the entire album. ''On My Way Here'' was released May 6, 2008 on the RCA label.

According to an article posted on ''Billboard'', Aiken and RCA parted ways shortly after his ''On My Way Here'' album was released. Aiken's rep confirmed to ''People'' magazine that Aiken left RCA. Stated in the cited ''People'' article, "The buzz about Aiken's exit was fueled earlier this week when his picture disappeared online and Billboard, citing unnamed sources, reported Friday that Aiken, 30, had been dropped by the label. According to Billboard, Aiken’s 2008 album “On My Way Here” sold just 159,000 copies in the U.S., compared to his 2003 debut album, “Measure of a Man,” which sold 2.78 million copies".

A fifth album, ''The Very Best of Clay Aiken'', was released at the end of March 2009 on Sony's Legacy Recordings Playlist Series. This album was a compilation of songs that had been included on the previous albums released by RCA. First week sales of 3000 copies placed ''Playlist: The Very Best of Clay Aiken'' at #173 on the Billboard 200 chart and at #10 on the Top Internet Albums chart.

2009-present: ''Tried and True''

On August 10, 2009 it was announced on Aiken's official website that he had signed with Decca Records and he would have new music out by early 2010. Performing the songs from his new album, ''Tried and True'', Aiken held a one night only concert at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, North Carolina on March 12, 2010. The concert, filmed for PBS broadcast, included guest appearances by Ruben Studdard and Linda Eder. Eder joined Aiken on stage for their duet of "Crying", which they recorded for his album. The album was released on June 1, 2010 and features songs popular in the 1950s and 1960s, including two Aiken covered during his run on American Idol, "Mack the Knife" and "Unchained Melody". In conjunction with the PBS special a companion DVD, ''Tried & True Live!'', was released on July 27, 2010. A tour to promote the album is planned for early 2011. On February 4, 2011, Clay parted ways with Decca Records.

Television

Aiken has made many television appearances.

On Labor Day 2003, Aiken sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon and received a standing ovation from the audience. Lewis compared Aiken with Frank Sinatra and marveled at the dedication of Aiken's fan base:

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That same year, Aiken sang The Star-Spangled Banner on the opening night of the 2003 World Series and appeared in numerous television specials during the winter of 2003, including Disney's Christmas Day Parade and the Nick At Nite Holiday Special, where he sang the "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" with Bing Crosby via special effects.

Aiken starred in and executive produced his first TV special (December 2004), titled ''A Clay Aiken Christmas'', with special guests Barry Manilow, Yolanda Adams, and Megan Mullally; the special was released on DVD later that month. On July 4, 2004, Aiken was one of the performers in the ''A Capitol Fourth'' concert in Washington, D.C. and performed in the ''Good Morning America'' Summer Concert Series in 2004 and 2005. He also sang "Isn't She Lovely" on the popular television show Scrubs.

Aiken was the musical guest on ''Saturday Night Live'' in 2004 and participated in several skits. He has appeared multiple times on ''The Tonight Show,'' interviewing with Jay Leno as a guest in addition to singing, and has become a regular guest on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live''. The Kimmel appearances often feature skits: in one, Jimmy Kimmel's then girlfriend Sarah Silverman confessed to an affair with Aiken, and in another, Aiken expressed his distaste for Kimmel's jokes about him by beating him up. In May 2007, he spent the first half of his interview on horseback while talking about his recent UNICEF trip to Afghanistan. A few weeks later he appeared as a spokesperson for "Guillermo's Mustache" in Kimmel's fictional DVD informercial shown on the ''Dancing With the Stars'' finale. Aiken made his acting debut on ''Ed'' in early 2004, playing himself, and in 2005, he was interviewed by Erica Kane on ''All My Children''. He played the role of cafeteria worker Kenny on the ''Scrubs'' episode "My Life in Four Cameras". In December 2006, he made an appearance as himself on ''Days of our Lives.''

After hosting and performing in the ''American Idol'' Christmas special in 2003, Aiken has had several subsequent hosting jobs. He was a special correspondent for ''The Insider'' for the 2005 Emmy Awards, and on the sets of the sitcom ''Reba'' with Reba McEntire and ''Dancing With the Stars''. He co-hosted ''The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet'' in 2006, and on November 17, 2006, filled in for Regis Philbin as guest host on ''Live with Regis and Kelly''. During an interview, Aiken covered Kelly Ripa's mouth with his hand. The incident drew considerable media reaction after Ripa complained at length about the incident on her show the following Monday. Aiken made fun of the controversy on the ''2006 American Music Awards'' the next night with Tori Spelling. On ''The Tyra Banks Show'' in 2006, filmed before the Ripa incident, Aiken mentioned wanting to have his own talk show someday, and Banks switched seats with him and let him interview her for one segment of the show. Aiken was a guest judge on the April 8, 2009 segment of Banks show America's Next Top Model; in what the show refers to as a teach, he worked with the remaining 8 contestants on their acting skills prior to the judging.

In November 2007, Aiken was a contestant on a celebrity edition of the game show ''Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?''. Playing for his charity, the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, he chose to drop out after the ninth question with $300,000, despite having a copy and a save at his disposal. If he had played the tenth question, he would have won $500,000; Aiken and the 5th grader playing with him both had the correct answer.

In May 2009, Aiken made a guest appearance on 30 Rock in the season 3 episode 'Kidney Now!'. It was revealed in this episode that he is the cousin of the show's character Kenneth.

In August, 2010, Aiken guest starred in an hour long episode of Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb, called "Summer Belongs to You". Aiken sang an inspirational duet with Chaka Khan, to encourage those who did not believe that Phineas and Ferb could accomplish their goal of circling the globe faster than the sun, thus creating the longest summer day of all time.

On January 30, 2011, Aiken sang the United States' national anthem at the 2011 NHL All-Star game held in the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, home of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Recently, Clay guest starred on the comedy drama series ''Drop Dead Diva.''

Broadway

On January 18, 2008, Aiken made his Broadway debut when he joined the cast of ''Monty Python's Spamalot'' for a four-month run, ending on May 4, 2008. He played Sir Robin, in the Tony Award-winning musical directed by Mike Nichols. In addition to Sir Robin, Aiken played the 1st Guard and the Brother Maynard roles. On August 12, 2008, it was announced that Aiken would resume his role as Sir Robin beginning on September 19 and ending on January 4, 2009. On December 23, 2008 Aiken had his caricature unveiled at world famous Sardi's restaurant.

Tours

From February through April 2004, Aiken and Kelly Clarkson embarked on the "Independent Tour" as co-headliners. Following this tour, he was scheduled for a few summer solo tour dates, but demand ultimately led to the booking of 50 dates across the United States, resulting in what many fans called the "Not-a-Tour". Disney (Buena Vista) was the exclusive sponsor of this unnamed summer tour, promoting their ''Aladdin'' Special Edition 2-Disc DVD with a preview of Aiken's rendition of "Proud of Your Boy", a song originally intended for the first release of the film but cut when the Aladdin storyline changed during production. A music video featuring Aiken is on the ''Aladdin'' Special Edition DVD. On this tour, he also performed a duet, "Without You," which was released on Kimberley Locke's 2004 debut album ''One Love''.

In November 2004, Aiken launched his third tour of the year, which revolved around a Christmas theme. "The Joyful Noise Tour", sponsored by Ronald McDonald House Charities, featured a conductor and a 30-piece orchestra. In some cities, Aiken was supported by the local philharmonic or symphony, such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Local choirs from high schools and elementary schools also participated at each concert.

175px|thumb|left|Aiken at a 2006 Christmas tour appearance in Waukegan, Illinois During the summer of 2005, Aiken, with a seven-piece band and three back-up singers, toured with the "Jukebox Tour", performing songs of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, as well as a few favorites from ''Measure of a Man.'' He also performed a few new songs being considered for his next album.

In early November 2005, Aiken launched his second Christmas tour. The 2005 Joyful Noise tour featured a series of vignettes, written by Aiken, which told the story of an older woman who had lost the Christmas spirit and a young boy who helps her find it again. A cast of actors, dancers and back-up singers traveled with the tour, and members of local theater groups were added in each venue for smaller, non-speaking roles and crowd scenes. The tour opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, on November 2, and ended in Clearwater, Florida on December 30. According to Pollstar, Aiken's first five tours grossed $28 million.

In December 2006, Aiken began his third Christmas tour, comprising performances in 18 Midwest and East Coast cities. Aiken was supported by local orchestras, which also opened the concerts with a program of seasonal music.

A 23-date tour in support of his third album, ''A Thousand Different Ways,'' began on July 4, 2007, and ended in Orlando, Florida, on August 19. On this tour Aiken hired local symphonies to back him, along with tour regulars Jesse Vargas, pianist, conductor and arranger; Sean McDaniel, drummer; and Quiana Parler and Angela Fisher, backup singers. Three days into the tour, Aiken and a woman were involved in an in-flight altercation in which she allegedly shoved him. As a result of the scuffle, Aiken and the woman were later questioned by the FBI. Aiken told ''ET'' that he had been sleeping when the incident occurred.

His fourth annual Christmas tour, "Christmas in the Heartland," began on November 26, 2007 in Wichita, Kansas. That 21-date tour ended on December 22, 2007 in Merrillville, Indiana.

He has ended all of his Christmas tours with his signature Christmas song, "Don't Save It All for Christmas Day."

Aiken and Ruben Studdard brought their “Timeless” tour to cities in the US and Canada beginning in Asheville, North Carolina, on July 23, 2010, and ending in Biloxi, Mississippi, on August 14. Instead of a concert focusing on each singers recordings, Aiken and Studdard opted for a variety show format covering medleys of songs from the 60s to the 90s with a few solos and interspersed with comedy bits.

Aiken announced on July 30, 2010, that he will be touring in February and March 2011 in conjunction with PBS to support his album ''Tried and True'' and accompanying live DVD ''Clay Aiken: Tried and True - Live''.

Faith and philosophy

In 2004 Aiken made the ''New York Times'' Best Seller List, debuting at #2, with his memoir titled ''Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life'', written with Allison Glock, and published by Random House. Barely mentioning ''American Idol'', in the book he instead turned his focus to the people who had the most influence in his life — his mother, grandparents, siblings, teachers, and friends — and to the importance of religion in his life.

While not self-identified as a Christian music artist, Aiken was featured in ''Christian Music Planet'' as an "American Idol Christian" in 2004, and in a cover story, "Clay Aiken's Balancing Act", in the January/February 2005 issue. His pre-''Idol'' demo albums included several selections of contemporary Christian music (or CCM) and gospel songs. A performance of the Commodores' "Jesus is Love" at the American Music Awards in 2003 earned Aiken and Ruben Studdard a standing ovation. Aiken has sung a few CCM songs at his pop concerts, and has made Christmas albums, Christmas television specials and performances, and Christmas tours essential elements of his career.

He described himself in ''Learning to Sing'' as a proud Southern Baptist who had journeyed away from those roots in his late teens in search of a religion with more liberal social policies, and then returned to that church because of family and social ties although he remains at odds with the church on some issues. When asked in a ''PBS Kids'' interview to name his idols, he responded, "When people ask me what three people I’d like to have dinner with, living or dead, I say Jesus Christ, Mr. Rogers, and Jimmy Carter."

Aiken makes it clear that he is aware not everyone shares his religious beliefs and it is not his intention to press these beliefs on others. When he worked as a camp counselor at the YMCA, he challenged other camp faculty by insisting that singing "overtly Christian songs" was inappropriate, as some of the kids were Jewish. "I stood firm... no child is going to have a spiritual crisis on my watch." His public philosophy, geared towards inclusion and service to others, reflects his stance that decisions about religion should be made at home.

Activism

Aiken has donated his time and his voice to multiple benefit events and concerts, including the 2004 Rosalynn Carter Benefit, the America's Promise Benefit, and Heather Headley's Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit, "Home," where he sang a duet with Headley. He was one of the celebrity readers for the ''Arthur Celebrity Audiobook (Stories for Heroes Series)'', which benefits the Bubel/Aiken Foundation (now the National Inclusion Project)and other charities, and served as spokesperson for the series. He was also a spokesperson for the 2004 Toys for Tots drive, and acted as an ambassador for the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Aiken worked with the Make a Wish Foundation to make one little boy's dream of singing on stage with Clay Aiken come true.

In September 2006, Aiken was appointed to the Presidential Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities by President George W. Bush. Appointees serve a two-year term; Aiken was sworn in September 14, 2006, by HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families Wade F. Horn, Ph.D. In April 2008, Aiken told ''People Magazine'' that he was too busy to do as much as he would like, but "If there's something I can do remotely, I would've been happy to do it."

While appearing in Spamalot, Aiken used his free time and celebrity to help raise funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) during their fund drives and auctions. In 2010, Aiken spoke out for gay rights at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in North Carolina. He also joined other celebrities in filming an educational video for Cyndi Lauper's web based Give a Damn campaign, a project of her True Colors Fund. In addition to UNICEF and his National Inclusion Project he is promoting GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network as one of his causes on his official website.

National Inclusion Project (formerly BAF)

Aiken has been a dedicated advocate for education and for children's causes. His interest in autism issues led him, along with Diane Bubel (whose son Michael is diagnosed with autism and was tutored by Aiken), to found the National Inclusion Project (formerly the Bubel/Aiken Foundation), which supports the integration of children with disabilities into the life environment of their non-disabled peers. The Foundation runs summer camps which reflect its mission,and also presents Able to Serve awards to support the volunteer efforts of children with physical and mental disabilities. In July 2005, Raleigh's WRAL-TV reported on an internet campaign mounted by critics questioning how Aiken's foundation used its money. WRAL news hired an independent accountant who reported that program services totaled $920,000 in 2004—around 85 cents on every dollar donated—which is considered a solid percentage compared to other charities. CNN picked up the story, and Aiken appeared on ''Showbiz Tonight'' to provide details about the Foundation's programs. In late 2004, the Foundation was awarded a $500,000 grant by the US government to develop a K–12 model for inclusion in community service projects to be used in schools across the country. In addition, State Farm granted $1.5 million dollars to the Foundation to help develop a primary education curriculum focused on teaching social and life skills through service to children of all levels of ability.

On August 5, 2009, in an open letter from the founders, Clay Aiken and Diane Bubel stated "As we realized the impact the Foundation has already made, it became apparent that even bigger accomplishments could be on the horizon. To that end, we along with the rest of the Board decided that a new name for the Foundation would establish long-term credibility and stability. We sought a name that would signify the Foundation’s position as a national leader on inclusion as well as recognize the Foundation’s start and the efforts of its faithful supporters. After much thought and deliberation, we are proud to introduce the organization we co-founded as the National Inclusion Project."

UNICEF

In November 2004, Aiken was appointed a U.S. Fund for UNICEF National Ambassador, with a mission to help ensure that children everywhere are afforded a primary education. After the tsunami at the end of 2004, he participated in the NBC4 telethon, which raised over $10 million, and recorded public service announcements in support of South Asian tsunami relief. He later recorded a video, featuring the song "Give a Little Bit", to be used as a public service announcement to raise money for tsunami victims. He was the 2005 spokesperson for the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF drive.

In March 2005, UNICEF sent Aiken to the tsunami-stricken Banda Aceh area to raise awareness of the need to restore education quickly to the children who survived this disaster. UNICEF sent Aiken on another mission in May 2005, to northern Uganda, to witness the plight of children called "night commuters", who flee the villages each night to sleep in streets and shelters in hopes of avoiding being kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army. He was sent to Kabul and Bamyan, in Afghanistan in April 2007, where he was able to spend time with children in their classrooms; he also visited a health center for women and children where he administered oral polio vaccinations to babies. He observed that Afghani children, after being forbidden for so many years by the Taliban regime to attend school, are eager to return to school now that they are once again allowed to receive an education. Aiken spent his 2007 Christmas in Mexico with the children affected by the floods in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco. In late June and early July 2008, UNICEF sent Aiken to Somalia and Kenya.

Fans

175px|thumb|right|Aiken at a 2006 Christmas tour appearance in Merrillville, IN Aiken was voted the Favorite Reality Star of 2003 by ''TV Guide'' readers and “the most-loved reality star of all time” in a ''TV Guide'' poll conducted in the summer of 2005. In February 2006, ''People'' magazine readers voted Aiken their "Favorite American Idol".

No one is quite sure where the term "Claymates" originated, but Aiken has trademarked the term. While in Los Angeles in September 2006 for a CD signing and appearance on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'', Aiken talked with Jann Carl of ''Entertainment Tonight'' about the names various sub-groups have given themselves: "Claysians" (Asian fans), "Claynadians" (Canadian fans), "Clayropeans" (European fans) and "Claydawgs" (male fans). She then teased him about having his own "Clay Nation". At the CD signing, two young fans asked Clay to autograph their shoulderblades and then went to the local tattoo parlor to make them permanent; later that day on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' they were brought on stage to show the tattoos. Although some of his fans have been criticized at times by the media as being obsessive, he defends the group as a whole. When Kimmel said to Aiken that his fans were "crazy", Aiken stated that they were merely "enthusiastic". In 2003, in anticipation of the release of ''Measure of a Man'', fans all over the country decided to get together and hold parties to celebrate the release of the CD and purchase copies at midnight. In 2006, for the release of ''A Thousand Different Ways,'' release parties were held in more than 80 cities in the United States, Canada, and Singapore.

Discography

Studio albums

''Measure of a Man'' (2003)

''Merry Christmas with Love'' (2004)

''A Thousand Different Ways'' (2006)

''All Is Well'' (2006 EP)

''On My Way Here '' (2008)

''Tried and True'' (2010)

Compilations

''The Very Best of Clay Aiken'' (2009)

''A Thousand Different Ways/Measure of a Man'' (2010)

DVDs

''A Clay Aiken Christmas'' (2004)

''Tried and True Live'' (2010)

Awards and nominations

Professional

American Music Awards

2003: Won - Fan's Choice Award

2003: Nominated - Favorite Male Artist - Pop or Rock

Billboard Awards

2003: Won - Best Selling Single of 2003 - ''"Bridge Over Troubled Water/This Is The Night"''

2004: Won - Best Selling Christmas Album - ''Merry Christmas with Love''

2004: Won - Best Selling Christian Album - ''Merry Christmas with Love''

2005: Won - Best Selling Christian Album - ''Merry Christmas with Love''

New Music Weekly Awards

2004: Won - Top 40 Male Artist of the Year

American Christian Music Awards

2005: Won - Outstanding Yule CD - ''Merry Christmas with Love''

Achievement

2005 Robert M. Barg Memorial Achievement Award 2006 UNC Charlotte Alumni Association Outstanding Young Alumnus Award 2007 National Center for Learning Disabilities' Children's Advocacy Award 2008 The Family Circle Award from the Family Equality Council

''American Idol'' season 2 performances and results

!Week	!Theme	!Song Sung	!Artist	!Order	!Result
Audition	Free Choice	"Always and Forever"		N/A	Advanced
Top 32/Semifinal Group 2	Free Choice			1	Top 3Wild Card
Wild Card	Free Choice	"Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"	Elton John	2	SelectedPublic Vote
Top 12	Motown	"I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)"	Four Tops	7	Safe
Top 11	Movie Soundtracks		Linda Ronstadt/James Ingram	4	Safe
Top 10	Country Rock	"Someone Else's Star"	Bryan White	10	Safe
Top 9	Disco	"Everlasting Love"	Carl Carlton	4	Safe1
Top 8	Billboard #1	"At This Moment"	Billy Vera	1	Safe
Top 7	Billy Joel	"Tell Her About It"	Billy Joel	7	Safe
Top 6	Diane Warren	"I Could Not Ask for More"	Edwin McCain	2	Safe
Top 5	1960sNeil Sedaka		The FoundationsNeil Sedaka	510	Safe
Top 4	Bee Gees	"To Love Somebody (song)	Bee Gees[[Frankie Valli	26	Safe
Top 3	Random ChoiceJudges' ChoiceIdol's Choice		Don McLeanBobby DarinThe Righteous Brothers	369	Safe
Top 2	Finale	"This Is the Night (song)	Clay Aiken[[The BeatlesSimon & Garfunkel	246	Runner-Up

Note 1: No one was eliminated that week due to the disqualification of Corey Clark.

See also

List of number-one hits (United States)

List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)

List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors

List of Decca Records artists

References

External links

Official websites

Decca Records - Clay Aiken

Official Clay Aiken website

Official Clay Aiken MySpace page

Official Clay Aiken YouTube channel

Clay Aiken - UNICEF Celebrity Ambassador

Reference Sites

Clay Aiken at Rolling Stone

Category:1978 births Category:American Idol participants Category:American male singers Category:American memoirists Category:American pop singers Category:American tenors Category:Decca Records artists Category:Idol series runners-up Category:LGBT Christians Category:LGBT memoirists Category:LGBT parents Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:Living people Category:Musicians from North Carolina Category:People from Raleigh, North Carolina Category:Southern Baptists Category:Baptists from the United States Category:UNICEF people Category:University of North Carolina at Charlotte alumni

da:Clay Aiken de:Clay Aiken es:Clay Aiken fa:کلی آیکن id:Clay Aiken it:Clay Aiken ms:Clay Aiken ja:クレイ・エイケン no:Clay Aiken pt:Clay Aiken fi:Clay Aiken sv:Clay Aiken th:เคลย์ ไอเคน vi:Clay Aiken zh:克萊·艾肯

name	Jars of Clay
landscape	yes
background	group_or_band
origin	Greenville, Illinois, U.S.
genre	Christian rock, pop rock, alternative rock, acoustic rock
years active	1993–present
label	Essential/Silvertone (1995–2007)Gray Matters/Nettwerk (2007–present)
website	www.jarsofclay.com
current members	Dan HaseltineStephen Mason or Steve Mason Matthew OdmarkCharlie Lowell
past members	Matt Bronleewe
notable instruments	}}

Jars of Clay is a Christian rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. They met at Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois.

Jars of Clay consists of Dan Haseltine on vocals, Charlie Lowell on piano and keyboards, Stephen Mason on lead guitars and Matthew Odmark on rhythm guitars. Although the band has no permanent drummer or bassist, Jeremy Lutito and Gabe Ruschival of Disappointed By Candy fill these roles for live concerts. Past tour band members include Aaron Sands, Scott Savage, and Joe Porter. Jake Goss was recently added to the band to play drums for their summer tour. Jars of Clay's style is a blend of alternative rock, folk, acoustic, and R&B;.

The band's name is derived from the New International Version's translation of 2 Corinthians 4:7: This verse is paraphrased in their song "Four Seven", which appears as a hidden track on the CD release of their self-titled album.

Band history

Formation

Dan Haseltine, Steve Mason, Charlie Lowell and Matt Bronleewe formed Jars of Clay at Greenville College, in Greenville, Illinois in the early 1990s. Charlie Lowell first met Dan Haseltine after noticing that he was wearing a Toad the Wet Sprocket shirt. Pursuing a career in music together was not necessarily their original goal; some of the first songs they wrote together were for music and recording classes they were taking at the time. Their second guitarist Matt Bronleewe joined some time later, and drummer Joseph Quevedo occasionally joined them for some of their early public performances. While in college playing together at local Christian coffee houses, Jars gained quite a reputation for their very original arrangement of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" which had been deftly adapted to the tune of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

In 1994, the band submitted a demo to a talent competition run by the Gospel Music Association and were selected as finalists. They traveled to Nashville to perform and won the contest. Back in Greenville, they self-released a limited-run of the same demo, which they named ''Frail'', after their song of the same name. The buzz from their performance in Nashville and the demo's popularity resulted in offers from record labels, so the band decided to drop school and move to Nashville. At this time, Bronleewe left the band to finish school and settle down with his fiancée. He was replaced with Matt Odmark, Lowell's childhood friend and fellow McQuaid Jesuit High School alum.

Jars of Clay & Drummer Boy EP

Jars of Clay signed with Essential Records and started recording their first full-length studio album, titled ''Jars of Clay''. King Crimson prog-rocker Adrian Belew heard the band and offered to produce, leading to him producing two songs - "Liquid" and "Flood". The band's self-titled debut released in 1995. When the single "Flood" began to climb the charts on mainstream radio stations, Silvertone Records (Essential's parent company) started to heavily promote the song, turning it into one of the biggest mainstream hits ever by a band on a Christian label. The album has since reached multi-platinum certification according to the RIAA. "Flood" peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #12 on the Billboard Modern Rock chart, and was the band's only secular radio hit.

The band toured in support of other Christian acts, such as PFR, and aside mainstream acts like Matchbox Twenty, Duncan Sheik, and Sting. This resulted in a small backlash from fundamentalist Christian groups. The band released a Christmas EP entitled ''Drummer Boy'' at the end of 1995. The EP was re-released in 1997 with a slightly different track listing on Silvertone.

Much Afraid

The year 1997 also saw the release of the band's sophomore album, ''Much Afraid'', which was produced by Stephen Lipson. The album sold very well and went on to earn a Grammy award for "Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album". The album has since earned platinum certification by the RIAA. They released two music videos for this album, Crazy Times and Five Candles (You Were There).

If I Left the Zoo

In 1999, Jars of Clay released their third album, ''If I Left the Zoo'', which was produced by Dennis Herring. The record earned the band their second Grammy award. It was during this time that touring drummer Scott Savage left the band's touring group to play for Jaci Velasquez and was replaced by Joe Porter. Lead radio single, "Unforgetful You", was also featured on the soundtrack to the motion picture ''Drive Me Crazy''. "Collide" was also featured on the motion picture "Hometown Legend". Upon the release of ''If I Left the Zoo'' they also released Front Yard Luge and after a year The White Elephant Sessions. ''If I Left the Zoo'' so far has the most singles released by Jars of Clay.

In 2001, the four members of the band received honorary degrees at Greenville College. However, only three of them, Haseltine, Lowell, and Mason had studied at the college before dropping out in 1994 to move to Nashville, while Odmark still received an honorary degree, despite having attended university in New York.

The Eleventh Hour

In 2002, the band self-produced and released their fourth album entitled ''The Eleventh Hour'', which earned the band a Grammy award for the third album in a row. The album relied on studio musicians and the band's touring musicians to fill in for the band's lack of drummer and bass player. Concerts from the subsequent "Eleventh Hour Tour" were recorded for later projects, including the release of a live concert DVD, 11Live: Jars of Clay in Concert.

Furthermore & Who We Are Instead

The year 2003 saw the band taking a look back at their career. The double-disc ''Furthermore: From the Studio, From the Stage'' features an acoustic disc and a live disc. The acoustic disc consisted of reworked and rearranged fan favorites, two ''The Eleventh Hour'' b-sides, and a cover of Adam Again's "Dig". The latter was actually intended for a tribute album for Gene Eugene, who had died recently. The live disc features a recent concert recording that include songs from throughout the band's career.

The band continued the acoustic and organic approach that was featured on ''Furthermore'' for their fifth studio album entitled ''Who We Are Instead'', which released on November 4, 2003. On the album, the band revisited various styles they had used previously, as well as experimenting with new influences, such as gospel, hymns, and Nickel Creek's "newgrass" style.

Redemption Songs

In early 2005, the band released ''Redemption Songs'', a collection of hymns and traditional songs. The band wrote new melodies to some old hymns and rearranged the music for several others. "God Will Lift Up Your Head", reworked as an acoustic rocker, was a hit for the band on Christian radio. They also covered five hymns from the ''Indelible Grace'' CD series (a series which originated from the work of Reformed University Fellowship).

Good Monsters

In late 2005, the band announced that the writing process for a new studio album was nearing completion, and that they would be returning to the studio to record the album in the spring. This new project, entitled ''Good Monsters'', was released on September 5, 2006. Backstage at the 2006 GMA Awards, Jars of Clay labeled the album their first ever rock record. In the September 2006 edition of ''CCM Magazine'', the band credited fellow artist Ashley Cleveland with inspiring the improvisational sound of the album. The magazine called it "the most profound album the Christian music community has released in years."

On September 4, 2007, two albums from the band were released simultaneously. The first was a mainstream release of ''Live Monsters'', which is an EP of live concert recordings of songs that were originally recorded for ''Good Monsters''. The EP had been previously released through the iTunes Store and through the official Jars of Clay online store. The second album released on this date was a greatest hits album, entitled ''The Essential Jars of Clay'', which was released through Essential/Legacy.

On April 1, 2008, Essential Records released the band's third greatest hits album (the second in the past year), entitled ''Greatest Hits''. Included was the new song "Love is the Protest".

In Summer of 2007, the song "Good Monsters" was featured in the pilot of the television show ''Eli Stone''. Additionally, the song "Work" was used in promotional material for the Fox Television network shows ''Bones'' and ''House''.

Gray Matters

In March 2007, the band announced at a concert in Des Moines, Iowa that they were no longer on Essential Records and would now be releasing music independently. Later, press releases announced the name of their label as Gray Matters, which would be a partnership with Nettwerk Music Group. Along with the announcement of their new label, the band mentioned that they are planning to record the soundtrack to Honoring a Father's Dream: Sons of Lwala, a documentary about Milton and Fred Ochieng' - brothers from the African village training to be doctors in the States, working to build a clinic in their home town.

The band's first release through Gray Matters was a Christmas album that was released on October 16, 2007, entitled ''Christmas Songs''.

Most recently, the band's song "Love Came Down at Christmas" was sampled in the Samuel Victor song "Stars and Angels".

On July 29, 2008, Gray Matters Records released ''Closer EP'' exclusively through online digital music stores. It was subsequently released on CD on August 19, 2008. Closer EP included reworked versions of "Flood" (called "Flood (New Rain)") and "Love Song For A Savior ('08)" from their debut album. It also included "Prisoner of Hope", which is not found on any other Jars album.

On December 8, 2008, the song "Closer" was featured in the 12th episode of the television show ''Privileged.''

The Long Fall Back To Earth

Jars of Clay's tenth studio album was released on April 21, 2009. The new record contains 14 songs, including "Closer" and "Safe to Land" from the Closer EP, and is influenced by 80s music, specifically Tears For Fears and The Cure. It is entitled ''The Long Fall Back to Earth''.

The song "Hero" was featured on a trailer for NBC's ''Kings''.

''The Long Fall Back To Earth'' debuted at #29 on the Billboard 200 mainstream charts, which was Jars of Clay's highest debut since ''The Eleventh Hour'' which debuted at #28 in 2002.

The first radio single off the album is "Two Hands", which peaked at #6 on the Hot Christian Songs chart.

The second single off the album is "Heaven."

''The Long Fall Back To Earth'' was nominated for the Grammy to the "Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album", though they didn't win in the category.

Jars of Clay released the first EP of the "Live at Gray Matters" series in the 5th of February.

The Shelter

The new album was released October 5, 2010 and features eleven tracks. The style does not vary greatly from their previous album, ''The Long Fall Back to Earth''. During their promotion for the upcoming album, for a few days, the band streamed the entire album before its release on their website. Also, while promoting the upcoming album, the band shared several tracks on the K-LOVE Christian radio stations and AIR-1. As a part of the Blood:Water Mission charitable campaign, the band played three songs from ''The Shelter'' on the radio, including "We Will Follow," "No Greater Love," and the title track. In early 2011 they toured the United States on the Rock And Worship Roadshow headlined by MercyMe.

Band members

Current members

Dan Haseltine – vocals, percussion, melodica

Charlie Lowell – piano, organ, accordion, keys, background vocals

Stephen Mason – guitar, vocals, bass, lap and pedal steel, national, mandolin, background vocals

Matthew Odmark – acoustic guitar, banjo, background vocals

Former member

Matt Bronleewe – guitar (1993–94)

Current touring members

Gabe Ruschival – bass (2006–present)

Jake Goss – drums (2009–Present)

Former touring members

Aaron Sands – bass (1995–2005)

Jeremy Lutito – drums (2005–2009)

Alex Fragiskatos - drums(2008–2009)

Joe Porter – drums (1999–2005)

Scott Savage – drums (1995–99)

Discography

Awards

Jars of Clay has been successful in being nominated for and winning several awards, including prestigious Grammy Awards and several of the Christian music awards, known as the GMA Dove Awards. Some of these successes have been collaborative efforts, including two ''City on a Hill'' albums and the inspired collaboration for the 2005 film ''The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe''. The group has won five Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) awards.

In June 2009, Jars of Clay was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.

Blood:Water Mission

Lead singer Dan Haseltine visited Africa in 2002, which in turn inspired the founding of Blood:Water Mission, a non-profit organization created to raise awareness and money for the poverty and AIDS stricken regions of the continent. The name is derived from, as Haseltine says, "The two things Africa needs most" - clean blood and clean water. The mission has begun the 1000 Wells project, an effort to have a thousand new wells built throughout Africa. The group recently met their goal of providing clean water to 1,000 African communities through the organization they founded, Blood:Water Mission, and its 1,000 Wells Project. Former Bassist for Jars of Clay Aaron Sands serves as Administrative Director for the project.

Beliefs

In a 2002 interview with NPR's Scott Simon on ''Weekend Edition Saturday'', responding to a question about the relatively subtle religious content of their music, Haseltine said, "our songs ... [are] not really there to explain our faith," but are "written about our life that is affected by our faith." Haseltine explained the decision to "shy away from ... traditional religious language" as a conscious one, in part to make their music more accessible to those "put off by religion", and to "love people in a way that isn't exclusive to simply people that understand the language of Christianity." Haseltine also stated that art can "make people feel what's true rather than telling them".

References

External links

Jars of Clay official website

Jarchives – fan site with an active forum community

The Jars World – one of the oldest Jars of Clay fan sites

Blood:Water Mission – non-profit relief organization founded by Jars of Clay

NPR interview from the ''Eleventh Hour'' era

Category:American folk rock groups Category:Christian rock groups from Illinois Category:Christian rock groups from Tennessee Category:Contemporary Christian music Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Greenville College Category:Musical groups from Illinois

cs:Jars of Clay de:Jars of Clay es:Jars of Clay fr:Jars of Clay it:Jars of Clay nl:Jars of Clay pt:Jars of Clay

name	Gillian Welch
alt	A slender, middle-aged woman with long brown hair plays guitar and sings into a microphone. She wears a cowboy hat and a red dress.
background	solo_singer
born	October 02, 1967 New York City, New York, U.S.
origin	New York, U.S. (born in); moved to LA, California with family; Nashville, Tennessee (currently resides)
instrument	singing, guitar, banjo, drums
genre	Bluegrass, Americana, rock
associated acts	Dave Rawlings Machine
website	gillianwelch.com
notable instruments	1956 Gibson J-50 }}

Gillian Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by ''The New Yorker'' as "at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms".

Welch and Rawlings have released five critically acclaimed albums. Their 1996 debut, ''Revival'', and the 2001 release ''Time (The Revelator)'', received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Their 2003 album, ''Soul Journey'', introduced electric guitar, drums and a more upbeat sound to their body of work. After a gap of eight years, they released their fifth studio album, ''The Harrow & The Harvest'', in 2011.

Welch was an associate producer and performed on two songs of the ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' soundtrack, a platinum album that won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. Welch has collaborated and recorded with distinguished musicians such as Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar, Emmylou Harris, The Decemberists, and Ani DiFranco. Welch and Rawlings perform at many music festivals.

Early life

Gillian Howard Welch was born on October 2, 1967 in New York City, and was adopted by Ken and Mitzie Welch, comedy and music entertainers. Her biological mother was a freshman in college, and her father was a musician visiting New York City. Welch has speculated that her biological father could have been one of her favorite musicians, and she later discovered from her adoptive parents that he was a drummer. Alec Wilkinson of ''The New Yorker'' stated that "from an address they had been given, it appeared that her mother ... may have grown up in the mountains of North Carolina". When Welch was three, her adoptive parents moved to Los Angeles to write music for ''The Carol Burnett Show''. They also appeared on ''The Tonight Show''. As a youngster, Welch was introduced to the music of American folk singers Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Carter Family. She performed folk songs with her peers at the Westland Elementary School in Los Angeles. Welch later attended Crossroads School, a high school in Santa Monica, California. While in high school, a local television program featured her as a student who "excelled at everything she did".

When a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Welch played bass in a goth band, and drums in a psychedelic surf band. In college, a roommate played an album by the bluegrass band The Stanley Brothers, and she had an epiphany:

The first song came on and I just stood up and I kind of walked into the other room as if I was in a tractor beam and stood there in front of the stereo. It was just as powerful as the electric stuff, and it was songs I'd grown up singing. All of a sudden I'd found my music.

After graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in photography, Welch attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she majored in songwriting. During her two years studying at Berklee, Welch gained confidence as a performer. Welch met her music partner David Rawlings at a successful audition for Berklee's only country band.

Career

Upon finishing college in 1992, Welch and Rawlings moved to Nashville, Tennessee. She recalled, "I looked at my record collection and saw that all the music I loved had been made in Nashville—Bill Monroe, Dylan, the Stanley Brothers, Neil Young—so I moved there. Not ever thinking I was thirty years too late." Rawlings soon followed. In Nashville, after singing "Long Black Veil", the two first realized that their voices harmonized well and they started to perform as a duo. They never considered using a working name, so the duo were simply billed as "Gillian Welch". A year after moving to Nashville, Welch found a manager, Denise Stiff, who already managed Alison Krauss. Both Welch and Stiff ignored frequent advice that Welch should stop playing with Rawlings and join a band. They eventually signed a recording contract with Almo Sounds. Following a performance opening for Peter Rowan at the Station Inn, producer T-Bone Burnett expressed interest in recording an album. Burnett did not plan to disturb Welch's and Rawlings' preference for minimal instrumentation, and Welch agreed to take him on as a producer.

''Revival''

For the recording sessions of Welch's debut, ''Revival'', Burnett wanted to recapture the bare sound of Welch's live performance. Welch recalled, "That first week was really intense. It was just T-Bone, the engineer, and Dave and myself. We got so inside our little world. There was very little distance between our singing and playing. The sound was very immediate. It was so light and small." Later, they recorded several more songs and played with an expanded group of musicians; guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee James Burton, bassist Roy Huskey, Jr., and veteran session drummers Jim Keltner, and Buddy Harman.

The album was released in April 1996 to positive reviews. Mark Deming of Allmusic called it a "superb debut" and wrote, "Welch's debts to artists of the past are obvious and clearly acknowledged, but there's a maturity, intelligence, and keen eye for detail in her songs you wouldn't expect from someone simply trying to ape the Carter Family." Bill Friskics-Warren of ''No Depression'' praised the album as "breathtakingly austere evocations of rural culture". The ''Chicago Daily Herald''s Mark Guarino observed that ''Revival'' was "cheered and scrutinized as a staunch revivalist of Depression-era music only because her originals sounded so much like that era." He attributed this to the biblical imagery of the lyrics, Burnett's threadbare production, and the plainly-sung bleakness in Welch's vocals. Ann Powers of ''Rolling Stone'' gave ''Revival'' a lukewarm review and criticized Welch for not singing of her own experiences, and "manufacturing emotion." Robert Christgau echoed Powers: Welch "just doesn't have the voice, eye, or way with words to bring her simulation off." ''Revival'' was nominated for the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, but lost to Bruce Springsteen's ''The Ghost of Tom Joad''.

''Hell Among The Yearlings''

The duo's 1998 ''Hell Among the Yearlings'' continued the rustic and dark themes; the songs' subject matter varies from a female character killing a rapist, a mining accident, a murder ballad, and an ode to morphine before death. Like ''Revival'', ''Hell Among The Yearlings'' featured a sparse style that focused on Rawlings and Welch's voices and guitars.

The album also received favorable reviews. Robert Wilonsky of the ''Dallas Observer'' observed that Welch "inhabits a role so completely, the fiction separating character and audience disappears". Thom Owens (Allmusic) stated that the album "lacks some of the focus" of ''Revival'', but is "a thoroughly satisfying second album" and proof that her debut was not a fluke. ''No Depression'''s Farnum Brown commended the live and "immediate feel" of the album, Welch's clawhammer banjo, and Rawlings' harmonies. Similar to ''Revival'', Welch was praised for reflecting influences such as the Stanley Brothers, but still managing to create an original sound, while Chris Herrington from Minneapolis's ''City Pages'' criticized the songs' lack of authenticity. He wrote "Welch doesn't write folk songs; she writes folk songs about writing folk songs."

''O Brother, Where Art Thou?''

Welch sang two songs and served as an associate producer for the Burnett-produced soundtrack to the 2000 film of the ''same name''. She shared vocals with Alison Krauss on a rendition of the gospel song "I'll Fly Away." Dave McKenna of ''The Washington Post'' praised their version: the singers "soar together." Burnett and Welch wrote additional lyrics for the song "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," sung by Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Krauss. The song is an elaboration of an old Mississippi tune discovered by Alan Lomax, and was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. The platinum album won the 2002 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The surprise success of the soundtrack gave Welch a career boost. Welch also made a cameo appearance in the film.

''Time (The Revelator)''

When Universal Music Group purchased Almo Sounds, Welch began her own independent label, Acony Records (named for the Appalachian wildflower, Acony Bell, subject of the song "Acony Bell" on ''Revival''). Rawlings produced the first release on Welch's new label, the 2001 album ''Time (The Revelator)''. All but one song on the album was recorded in the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville. "I Want To Sing That Rock and Roll" was recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium in the recording sessions for the concert film ''Down from the Mountain''. Welch has said the album is about American history, rock 'n' roll, and country music. There are songs about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the Titanic Disaster, John Henry, and Elvis Presley. ''Time'' continues Welch and Rawlings' style of mellow and sparse arrangements. Welch explained, "As opposed to being little tiny folk songs or traditional songs, they're really tiny rock songs. They're just performed in this acoustic setting. In our heads we went electric without changing instruments."

''Time (The Revelator)'' received extensive critical praise, most of which focused on the evolution of lyrics from mountain ballads. For Michael Shannon Friedman of ''The Charleston Gazette'', "Welch's soul-piercing, backwoods quaver has always been a treasure, but on this record her songwriting is absolutely stunning." Critics compare the last track, the 15-minute "I Dream a Highway", to classics by Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Zac Johnson of Allmusic described ''I Dream...'' as akin to "sweetly dozing in the [river] current like Huck and Jim's Mississippi River afternoons". ''No Depression''s Grant Alden wrote, "Welch and Rawlings have gathered ... fragments from across the rich history of American music and reset them as small, subtle jewels adorning their own keenly observed, carefully constructed language." ''Time'' finished thirteenth in the 2001 ''Village Voice'' Pazz & Jop music critic poll. ''Time (The Revelator)'' appeared in best of decade lists of ''Rolling Stone'', ''Paste'', ''Uncut'', ''The Irish Times'', and the ''Ottawa Citizen''. The album was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, but lost to Bob Dylan's ''Love and Theft''. ''Time'' peaked at #7 on the Billboard Independent Album chart.

''The Revelator Collection'' DVD was released in 2002. It featured live performances and music videos of songs from ''Time'', and some covers. The concert footage was filmed in 2001, and the music videos included Welch and Rawlings performing three songs at RCA Studio B. ''No Depression''s Barry Mazor praised the DVD as an accompaniment for ''Time'', calling it "one last exclamation point on that memorable and important project".

''Soul Journey''

For the 2003 release, ''Soul Journey'', Welch and Rawlings explored new territory. Welch said: "I wanted to make it a happier record. Out of our four records, I thought this might be the one where you're driving down the road listening to it on a sunny summer day." Rawlings again produced the record. The album also reflected a change in the typically sparse instrumentation: Welch and Rawlings introduced a dobro, violin, electric bass and drums, and Welch later said, "Everything's not supposed to sound the same, you want it to reflect change and growth."

In three songs of ''Soul Journey'', for the first time Welch and Rawlings recorded their own versions of traditional folk songs. On the original compositions, Welch's lyrics are more autobiographical than previous albums.

The album received mixed reviews. Allmusic's Zac Johnson wrote that it was "too casual and off-the-cuff", but called it a "wonderful, dusty summertime front-porch album, full of whiskey drawls and sly smiles, floorboard stomps and screen-door creaks". Jon Caramanica of ''Rolling Stone'' criticized the slower songs as stagnant, but complimented the upbeat songs. ''Soul Journey'' also garnered significant acclaim. John Harris of ''Mojo'' magazine described the album as "pretty much perfect", and ''Uncut''s Barney Hoskyns favorably compared it to Bob Dylan and The Band's ''The Basement Tapes''. Will Hermes of ''Entertainment Weekly'' wrote that Welch has "never sounded deeper, realer, or sexier." ''Soul Journey'' peaked at #107 on the Billboard charts, and reached #3 for Independent Albums.

Dave Rawlings Machine

Welch and Rawlings continued their partnership in the band Dave Rawlings Machine. Welch co-wrote five of the songs with Rawlings, and provided guitar and harmony vocals. Andy Gill of ''The Independent'' described the 2009 debut album ''A Friend of a Friend'' as "akin to one of Welch's albums, but with the balance of their harmonies swapped to favour Rawlings' voice". Although ostensibly Rawlings' first solo album, Alex Ramon of PopMatters noted the similarities to Welch albums. ''Paste Magazine''s Stephen Deusner praised ''A Friend of a Friend'' for incorporating "a wide swath of traditional American music," comments echoed by ''Rolling Stone''s Will Hermes and in the ''PopMatters'' piece.

The Harrow & The Harvest

In a 2007 feature in ''The Guardian'', critic John Harris expressed frustration that there had not been a Gillian Welch release in four years. Creation Records founder Alan McGee showed optimism about Welch and Rawlings testing out some new songs while opening some concerts for Rilo Kiley, and wrote in a 2009 blog entry "the long gestation period signals nothing less than a perfect album". In 2009, Rawlings said that recording for the next Gillian Welch album has started, but did not give a release date.

''The Harrow & The Harvest'' was released on June 28, 2011. Welch attributed the long time period between releases to writer's block and dissatisfaction with initial recording attempts. She explained: "Our songcraft slipped and I really don't know why. It's not uncommon. It's something that happens to writers. It's the deepest frustration we have come through, hence the album title." The writing process involved "this endless back and forth between the two of us," Welch said, stating that "It’s our most intertwined, co-authored, jointly-composed album."

The album received praise from publications such as ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''Uncut'', and'' Rolling Stone''. Thom Jurek of Allmusic wrote that the album "is stunning for its intimacy, its lack of studio artifice, its warmth and its timeless, if hard won, songcraft"..

The album peaked at #20 on the US Billboard 200 and #25 on the UK Albums Chart.

Musical style

Welch and Rawlings incorporate elements of early twentieth century music such as old time, classic country, gospel and traditional bluegrass with modern elements of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, jazz, and punk rock. ''The New Yorker''s Alec Wilkinson maintained their musical style is "not easily classified—it is at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms". The instrumentation on their songs is usually a simple arrangement, with Welch and Rawlings accompanying their own vocals with acoustic guitars, banjos, or a mandolin. Welch plays rhythm guitar with a 1956 Gibson J-50 (or banjo), while Rawlings plays lead on a 1935 Epiphone Olympic Guitar. ''The New Yorker''s Wilkinson described Rawlings as a "strikingly inventive guitarist" who plays solos that are "daring melodic leaps". A review in ''No Depression'' by Andy Moore observed that "he [Rawlings] doesn't play his big, coffee-colored, hollow body Gibson so much as he squeezes, strokes, chokes and does just about everything but blow into it". Jamie Cowperthwait of ''Rolling Stone'' wrote that Rawlings' guitar playing "makes the music swell and vibrate at all the right moments."

Themes

Many songs performed by Welch and Rawlings contain dark themes about social outcasts struggling against such elements as poverty, drug addiction, death, a disconnection from their family, and an unresponsive God. Despite Welch being the lead singer, several of these characters are male. Welch has commented, "To be commercial, everybody wants happy love songs. People would flat-out ask me, 'Don't you have any happy love songs?' Well, as a matter of fact, I don't. I've got songs about orphans and morphine addicts." To reflect these themes, Welch and Rawlings often employ a slow pace to their songs. Their tempo is compared to a "slow heartbeat", and Cowperthwait of ''Rolling Stone'' observed that their songs "can lull you into near-hypnosis and then make your jaw drop with one final revelation".

Reception

Welch has received broad critical praise. Geoffrey Himes of ''The Washington Post'' described Welch as "one of the most interesting singer-songwriters of her generation". In 2003, Tom Kielty of ''The Boston Globe'' observed that she was "quietly establishing one of the most impressive catalogs in contemporary roots music", and a 2007 piece in ''The Guardian'' by John Harris called Welch "one of the decade's greatest talents". Critic Robert Hilburn of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote, "At every turn, she demonstrates a spark and commitment that should endear her to anyone from country and folk to pop and rock fans who appreciate imagination and heart."

When Welch's first two albums came out, critics questioned the authenticity of her music, as she was raised in Southern California, but performed Appalachian themed songs. For ''Revival'', Welch was criticized for "manufacturing emotion", and a review of ''Hell Among the Yearlings'' by Chris Herrington of ''City Pages'' stated, "Welch is someone who discovered old-time music in college and decided that her own sheltered life could never be worth writing about", and that she is "completely devoid of individuality". Other critics rejected the notion that her background affects the authenticity of her music. Music critic Mark Kemp defended Welch in a ''The New York Times'' piece:

The first-person protagonist of Ms. Welch’s song ("Caleb Meyer") may be a young girl from a time and place that Ms. Welch will never fully understand, but the feelings the singer expresses about rape, and the respect she displays for her chosen musical genre, are nothing if not poignantly authentic. Likewise, it matters not whether Ms. Welch has ever walked the streets of "the black dust towns of East Tennessee" about which she sings in "Miner's Refrain" because the sense of foreboding that she expresses for the men who once labored in coal mines with futile hopes of a better life comes through loud and clear.

''The Wall Street Journal'''s Taylor Holliday echoed this: "Stingy critics give Ms. Welch a hard time because she's a California city girl, not an Appalachian coal miner's daughter. But as Lucinda or Emmylou might attest, love of the music is not a birthright, but an earned right. Listen to Ms. Welch yodel, in a tune about that no-good "gal" Morphine, and you know she's as mountain as they come."

Influences and collaborations

Welch emphasizes music from a previous era as her major influence. She said that "by and large I listen to people who are dead. I'm really of the tried-and-true school. I let 50 years go by and see what's really relevant." Welch has acknowledged inspiration from several traditional country artists, including the Stanley Brothers, the Carter Family, the Louvin Brothers, and the Blue Sky Boys. She explained her relationship with traditional music by saying, "I've never tried to be traditional. It's been a springboard for me and I love it and revere it and would not be doing what I do without the music of the Monroe Brothers, the Stanley Brothers and the Carter Family. However, it was clear I was never going to be able to do exactly that; I'm a songwriter."

In addition to the strong country influence, Welch also draws on a repertoire of such Rock 'n' Roll artists as Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead and the Velvet Underground. She has noted alternative rock bands Throwing Muses, Pixies and Camper Van Beethoven "don't directly inform my music, but they're in there."

Welch has recorded songs with a variety of notable artists, including Ryan Adams, Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, Jay Farrar, Alison Krauss, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bright Eyes, Robyn Hitchcock, Steve Earle, Ralph Stanley, The Decemberists, Solomon Burke and Mark Knopfler. Welch and Rawlings' contributions on Hitchcock's album ''Spooked'' was described by Christopher Bahn of ''The A.V. Club'' as "subtle but vital". Mark Deming of Allmusic wrote that their work on Ryan Adams' album ''Heartbreaker'' "brought out the best in Adams".

Artists who have recorded songs written by Welch include Jimmy Buffett, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Trisha Yearwood, Joan Baez, Allison Moorer, Emmylou Harris, and Kathy Mattea.

Performances

Welch and Rawlings have played many music festivals, including The Newport Folk Festival, Coachella Festival, The Telluride Bluegrass Festival, The Cambridge Folk Festival, MerleFest, The Austin City Limits Festival, and Farm Aid. They have toured North America extensively, and have played in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Concert reviews have praised the chemistry between Welch and Rawlings on stage. Tizzy Asher of the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' wrote "there was a startling unspoken intimacy between them. They anticipated each other's movements and shifted when necessary to fit each other."

The Dave Rawlings Machine have toured North America, with the band composed of Rawlings, Welch and three members of Old Crow Medicine Show. Welch and Rawlings also participate in group tours with notable musicians. In 2004, they were part of the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue, a three-week US tour with Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller and Emmylou Harris. In 2009, The Dave Rawlings Machine joined Old Crow Medicine Show, The Felice Brothers and Justin Townes Earle for The Big Surprise Tour, a US tour described as a "roots-music extravaganza". In 2011, it was announced that Welch would be opening a short tour for the newly reformed Buffalo Springfield.

Discography

1996 – ''Revival''

1998 – ''Hell Among the Yearlings''

2001 – ''Time (The Revelator)''

2003 – ''Soul Journey''

2011 - ''The Harrow & The Harvest''

Footnotes

References

External links

Official website

Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:American female singers Category:American folk singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Berklee College of Music alumni Category:American bluegrass musicians Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:People from New York City Category:University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Category:American adoptees Category:American female guitarists Category:People from Santa Monica, California

de:Gillian Welch fr:Gillian Welch he:גיליאן ולץ' simple:Gillian Welch sv:Gillian Welch