Third Day aims to break out of the 'Christian' pigeonhole

Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 15, 2006 at midnight

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In the past, Christian music would frequently be ignored or even banned from music shops and airplay if it was too gritty.

Bands like The 77s believed that salvation couldn't be addressed without at least acknowledging the sins that made it necessary. Traditional outlets found it unappealing for their customers.

So it's testament to the change and maturation in the market that Christianity Today gave Third Day's latest album, the Southern- rock-influenced and guitar- heavy Wherever You Are, a generally good review but took them to task for not being hard and gritty enough about the pain and suffering that inspired the songs.

Guitarist Mark Lee, who will be with the band at the Fillmore Auditorium on Saturday, says he can see both sides of the issue.

"When it comes to making music, we don't really talk about political issues so much. It's better to paint with broader strokes, take a step back and have the emotion be raw but the details be a little more vague," he says. "You're able then to apply it to a lot of situations."

Wherever You Are did spring from suffering, be it the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina or the personal issues - deaths, divorce - that people close to the band went through in the last few years.

"It really translated into the music," Lee says. "We didn't know there were going to be a couple of hurricanes to hit last year while writing the album, but we had a song like Cry Out to Jesus that a lot of people latched on to afterward.

"Maybe we need to be a little more gritty with the lyrics. Maybe next time around we will. We are deliberate about what we're doing. We know what we're trying to accomplish with the music. I feel like with this album we did.

"Instead of providing these pat answers for complicated problems, . . . we've tried to go there and acknowledge that life isn't easy but that God does care about everything."

The band's last album, Wire, was more secular in bent and was interpreted as an attempt to cross over to mainstream radio.

That would have been nice, Lee says, but it wasn't the main goal.

"We're making music that we feel is good enough for anybody to hear. It gets pigeonholed into this one market, this one genre," he says. "When people go to Target or whatever to pick up an album and there's the Christian music section, I think, a lot of people walk right on by."

The band has had charity on its mind for years. After working with Habitat for Humanity in the past, Third Day is now working with World Vision, particularly in the area of helping children who are forced into military servitude in Uganda. After seeing a film called Invisible Children, the band felt compelled to contribute.

"It's such a moving thing it makes you mad and you want to respond," Lee says.

The band's rising profile might make more work in those areas possible. Wherever You Are is the band's highest-charting and fastest-selling disc to date. The band enjoyed a boost from things like satellite radio, which doesn't discriminate against its music.

"They'll play Third Day then U2 then Switchfoot or Creed or whoever. The lines are a little more blurred," Lee says. "That's what's fun about satellite radio. There's more control over people being able to seek out the music they want to listen to and less of the record-company forced aspect of it. It's an exciting time to make music."

Ironically, though, that's not what led to Wherever You Are's success. Regular airplay did.

"We're talking about all these new technologies and new formats," Lee says, "but the good old FM radio is what helped us out this time."

Third Day

• When and where: 7 p.m. Saturday, Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 Clarkson St.

• Cost: $26

• Information: 303-830-8497 or www.ticketmaster.com

Mark Brown is the popular music critic. Brownm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2674

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