"Wake Me Up" by The Hawk in Paris, Tuesday, July 6, 2021

 

When I heard "Wake Me Up" on a NoiseTrade Holiday sampler when I was driving home from Tennessee through Atlanta to avoid an ice storm in the mountains, I couldn't help but wonder, "Is this Jars of Clay's Dan Haseltine?" Haseltine's soft voice has always kept Jars of Clay on the softer side of rock, despite their '90s grunge-era hit, "Flood." Though taking the name from a 1957 jazz album by saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, Haseltine's project with former Jars of Clay guitarist Matt Bronleewe and composer/producer Jeremy Bose was actually based on their love for 80s/90s electronic music. In 2013 the trio released their full-length album Freaks, which was mostly an overlooked release. The band hasn't done much since then, and Freaks might just be a one-off passion project for the trio.

I'VE BEEN SCREAMING WITHOUT KNOWING. Haseltine's bread and butter, of course, is Contemporary Christian band, Jars of Clay. Coming onto the scene in 1994 the band crossed over onto rock radio and were a staple of Christian Rock until the early 2000s. Like their fading crossover appeal, their Christian Rock radio appeal also diminished. The band's music was in soundtracks until their third album, If I Left the Zoo. After their fourth album The Eleventh Hour, the band went soft, recording music that better fit the Christian Adult Contemporary radio format. The band released music until 2013, but in 2014, Haseltine lost many followers for Jars of Clay when he voiced his views on marriage equality on Twitter, coming out in support of LGBTQ rights. Haseltine later apologized for using Twitter as his platform to a complex discussion, and he also felt remorse that his public declaration was not a blanket statement for the band and he stated that each member had their own views on the issue. However, he did not apologize for his advocacy for LGBTQ rights. Haseltine was one of the biggest voices of support in the CCM community at the time. This was, of course, four years after fellow CCM star, collaborator, and co-headlining musician Jennifer Knapp had come out to the scorn of the Contemporary Christian press. Former Caedmon's Call singer Derek Webb had fully supported Knapp, taking her on tour when few other Christian acts would. 

THE FIRST THING THAT I WANT TO SEE IS YOU. This is not to throw shade on Haseltine. Jennifer Knapp's very public coming out shook me. I remember reading about CCM singers who came out or scandals that were handled off stage (Ray Boltz, come to find out the missing Avalon guy), but Jennifer Knapp was one of the first artist's whose music spoke to my soul, and to find out that there was this side to her was complicated. She came out about ten years after the peak of her career, but the Lay it Down and The Way I Am record still spoke to me spiritually. Her music was so popular and she was decorated with so many Dove Awards because she brought honesty and sincerity to a genre that was mostly concerned with trite platitudes. When I was growing up, finding out that someone was gay had the effect of finding out something bad about someone, like a death or finding out that someone had committed a crime. In 2010, I didn't particularly care for Jennifer Knapp's new album, but I was not ready to dismiss her artistry. I did, however, compartmentalize this information until I was ready to deal with my own sexuality. Coincidently, also in 2014, though having nothing to do with Dan Halestine's tweets. In 2014 it was Glee's positive depiction of Kurt and Blaine's relationship that made me finally read Jennifer Knapp's memoir Facing the Music.  I wanted to know a real person's story. 

https://genius.com/The-hawk-in-paris-wake-me-up-lyrics