For the Wisconsin musical group Gomers, see The Gomers . For the use of the Third day in the Bible, see Third day in the Bible. Third Day is a CCM and Christian rock band formed in Marietta, Georgia during the 1990s. The band was founded by lead singer Mac Powell, guitarist Mark Lee and former member Billy Wilkins [1]. The other band members are bassist Tai Anderson and drummer David Carr. The band's name is a reference to the biblical account of Jesus rising from the dead on the third day following his Crucifixion.

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History

In 1992, they were playing at Lee's church the same night that drummer David Carr and bassist Tai Anderson were playing with a band called Bullard Family Singers. Their youth director asked the band to perform at their church. The group took along quickly and were invited to join the band. ^[1] The album that Carr produced would be released the next year under the title Long Time Forgotten .

In 1993, while dealing with their studies, the band started playing more aggressively around Atlanta and saved $3,000 to record a full-length album. Also, during this time, original member, Billy Wilkins, who was working as a school teacher, ended up leaving the band. ^[3] Still, Third Day continued to work on their first full-length album, recording at Furies Studios in Atlanta. The album was finally released in 1994 with 2,000 copies available. ^[4] In 1995, the band started looking for a new second guitarist. They had heard Brad Avery play with singer Chris Carder and asked him to play with the band. After playing "Consuming Fire" during their first rehearsal, Avery officially joined the band.

As the band completed its line-up, they also started playing steadily around the South-east area. They also started playing at an Marietta venue called the Strand Theatre. The management of the local decided to sign the band to a new independent record label called Gray Dot Records. That same year, the band released the album Third Day , which ended up selling 20,000 copies. Shortly after, Reunion Records signed the band to a multi-album deal. ^[5]

Signed by Reunion Records

After being signed by Reunion Records, they immediately released the now official version of Third Day s first album in 1996. The record has sold over 300,000 copies and was received well by critics. The album also yielded their only mainstream rock radio hit in the U.S., "Nothing at All", which peaked at #34 on the Billboard rock charts. ^[6] That same year, popular band Newsboys asked Third Day to open five of their shows around the West Coast. They also launched their own tour over 65 cities which ended up being a success. All Star United and Seven Day Jesus opened for them. The band was also nominated for the Dove Award for New Artist of the Year, and the video of "Consuming Fire" won a Billboard Award for Best Christian video. ^[7]

In the winter of 1997, the band started working on their second album, Conspiracy No. 5 . The album was produced by Sam Taylor, who had previously worked with bands like King's X. The album was nominated for a Grammy and won Dove Awards for Rock Album of the Year and Rock Song of the Year ("Alien"). ^[8] The following year, the band dedicated exclusively to touring around the US, alone and opening for the Newsboys again. They also collaborated on the Dove Award winning project from Michael W. Smith called Exodus . They recorded a cover of one of Smith's song called "Agnus Dei".

International Success

In 1998, the band started working on their next project titled Time under the production of Monroe Jones. They had compiled around 30 songs to choose from during the last year, and ended up choosing only ten. The album was also nominated for a Grammy and won another Dove Award for the band. Some of the other songs the band recorded, but were left out can be found in the EP Southern Tracks . ^[9] Also, during the band's live shows, the worship part was becoming more "powerful", which prompted them to release an album exclusively of worship songs, titled Offerings: A Worship Album . The album was recorded in about a week, and they followed it with a tour alongside Jennifer Knapp. They also collaborated in the project called City on a Hill: Songs of Worship and Praise . ^[10]

In 2001, the band played in Australia and New Zealand on the heels of the success of the Offerings album. They continued to tour in the States, and recorded one of their concerts in Atlanta to be released as their first DVD, The Offerings Experience . The concert was held at the Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheatre with an attendance of close to 15,000 people. That same year, the band won a total of five Dove Awards as well as their first Grammy. They followed that year with the release of Come Together which ended up winning two Dove Awards and one more Grammy. The album was certified gold the next year, along with Time . ^{[11] [12]} In 2003, they also released a follow-up to their hit Offerings titled Offerings II: All I Have to Give .

The band appeared in the 2002 film "Joshua", the movie version of the Joseph Girzone novel of the same name. The Third Day song "My Hope is You" was included in the Joshua soundtrack album.

Recent Years

In 2004, the band released their next album, Wire , and toured the States with tobyMac and Warren Barfield. In June of the same year, the band traveled to Europe for a two-week tour. Upon returning, the band recorded a concert at Louisville which became their next project, Live Wire , released later that year. During that year, they also collaborated on the soundtrack for Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the Christ , they played at the Republican National Convention, and were featured in the show 60 Minutes . ^[13] In January 2007, the band played one night each in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney, Australia. ^[14]

Their next album, Wherever You Are , debuted on the Billboard 200 at #8. ^[15] It also won the band their third Grammy. They have followed it with the holiday album, Christmas Offerings in 2006, and with a compilation of their hits titled Chronology in 2007. Their next studio album called Revelation was released July 29, 2008. On February 28, 2008, Third Day released a statement announcing Brad Avery's departure from the band after 13 years and over 1000 concerts. The band also performed at the Papal Youth Rally in April 2008 at St.Joesph's Semenary in Yonkers, NY. The song "This Is Who I Am" from their new album Revelation appears in NASCAR 09, though the album was released over a month after the game. They appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on July 29, 2008 where they performed "Call My Name," the first single from Revelation . They also appeared on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on November 20, 2008, where they performed the new album's title track ("Revelation"). "Call My Name" hit #1 and was the 5th most-played song on R&R magazine's Christian CHR chart for 2008. ^[16] In June, 2009, it was announced that Third Day would be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame on September 19, 2009.

Members

Current

• Mac Powell - vocals, guitar
• Mark Lee - guitars, backing vocals
• Tai Anderson - bass, backing vocals
• David Carr - drums, percussion
• Scotty Wilbanks - keyboards (touring member only)

Past

• Billy Wilkins, keyboards. Wilkins was one of the original members of Third Day, from 1991 to 1993, along with Powell and Lee. He was also with the group when Anderson and Carr joined, both of whom were still in high school at the time. He is currently an economics and management teacher near Atlanta. He has recorded with Third Day as recently as 2004, when he played "Blessed Assurance" on a project for author/speaker Max Lucado. In 2007, film footage of three of the band's earliest concerts were released on the two projects "Chronology I and II," in which Billy is included.
• Geof Barkley, keyboards. Barkley (formerly of Geoff Moore and the Distance) played keyboards on every live album in the band's history and every live show for nearly seven years. Barkley also performed on Wherever You Are . Although never officially a member of the band, Brad Avery has described Barkley as '"in the band", but he's not a "member" of Third Day, that's two different things. But he is in the band, and he plays with us live every night, and he rocks.' Barkley's background vocals in songs such as "God of Wonders" and "Took My Place" as well as "You Are So Good To Me" have become integral parts of Third Day's live sound. Barkley finished touring with Third Day on October 21, 2005 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• Brad Avery, guitar From Third Day Weblog by Third Day. "Third Day and Brad Avery have made the very difficult decision to part ways. We appreciate Brad’s many contributions to the band's career to date, including his work on our forthcoming album, but the time has come for us to follow our separate paths. He has been an important part of Third Day for the last 13 years as we've traveled the world together and performed over 1,000 concerts. We will miss him as a band member but he will always remain our brother and our friend. Brad is a wonderful person, gifted songwriter and talented musician. We trust that God has amazing plans for his future." Avery left the band on February 28, 2008.
• August McCoy, McCoy is shown meeting with the band backstage after a Raleigh, NC, concert on the Live Revelations DVD.

Discography

Studio and live albums

Album Title	Release Date	Label	Billboard 200 peak [17]	RIAA Certification
Third Day	February 25, 1997	Reunion Records	-	Gold
Conspiracy No. 5	August 26, 1997	Reunion Records	#50	---
Time	August 24, 1999	Essential Records	#63	Gold
Offerings: A Worship Album	July 11, 2000	Essential Records	#66	Platinum
Come Together	November 6, 2001	Essential Records	#31	Gold
Offerings II: All I Have to Give	March 4, 2003	Essential Records	#18	Gold
Wire	May 4, 2004	Essential Records	#12	Gold
Live Wire	November 23, 2004	Essential Records	-	Platinum
Wherever You Are	November 1, 2005	Essential Records	#8	Gold
Christmas Offerings	October 17, 2006	Essential Records	#78	---
Chronology Volume 1	March 27, 2007	Essential Records	#61	---
Chronology Volume 2	August 7, 2007	Essential Records	#73	---
Revelation	July 29, 2008	Essential Records	#6	---

EPs

Album Title	Release Date	Label	Album Information
Southern Tracks	August 24, 1999	Essential Records	Released with limited copies of Time .
Carry Me Home	August, 2002	Essential Records	Recorded to benefit Habitat for Humanity during the Come Together tour.
Wherever You Are Bonus CD	November, 2005	Essential Records	Released in limited quantities with purchase of Wherever You Are .

Early Independent Albums

Album Title	Release Date	Label
Long Time Forgotten	1993	Independent
Contagious	1994	Independent
Third Day	1995	Gray Dot Records

Music videos

• "Consuming Fire" (1996)
• "You Make Me Mad" (1997)
• "Your Love Oh Lord" (1999)
• "Cry Out To Jesus" (2006) - The original shooting of the "Cry Out To Jesus" music video.
• "Cry Out To Jesus" (Band Version) (2006) - A shooting of the "Cry Out To Jesus" music video in which the band enters the studio through one continuous shot lasting over half of the song. Released for the Chronology: Volume I DVD.

Live DVDs

• The Offerings Experience (2002)
• The Come Together Tour (2003)
• Live Wire (2004)
• Christmas Offerings (2008)
• Live Revelations (2009)

American Music Awards

• 2008 American Music Award for Favorite Contemporary Inspirational Artist of the Year

Grammy Awards

• 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album of the Year for Come Together
• 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album of the Year for Wire
• 2006 Grammy Award for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album of the Year for Wherever You Are

Gospel Music Awards

• 1998 Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year for Conspiracy No. 5
• 1998 Dove Award for Rock Recorded Song of the Year for "Alien"
• 1999 Dove Award for Special Event Album of the Year for Exodus
• 2000 Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year for Time
• 2001 Dove Award for Group of the Year
• 2001 Dove Award for Artist of the Year
• 2001 Dove Award for Rock Recorded Song of the Year for "Sky Falls Down"
• 2001 Dove Award for Praise and Worship Album of the Year for Offerings: A Worship Album
• 2001 Dove Award for Special Event Album of the Year for City on a Hill: Songs of Worship and Praise
• 2002 Dove Award for Group of the Year
• 2002 Dove Award for Long Form Music Video of the Year for Third Day Live in Concert - The Offerings Experience
• 2002 Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year for Come Together
• 2002 Dove Award for Rock Recorded Song of the Year for "Come Together"
• 2003 Dove Award for Group of the Year
• 2003 Dove Award for Rock Recorded Song of the Year for "40 Days"
• 2003 Dove Award for Special Event Album of the Year for City on a Hill: Sing Alleluia
• 2004 Dove Award for Praise and Worship Album of the Year for Offerings II: All I Have to Give
• 2004 Dove Award for Long Form Music Video of the Year for Third Day Live in Concert, The Come Together Tour
• 2005 Dove Award for Special Event Album of the Year for The Passion of the Christ: Songs
• 2005 Dove Award for Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year for Wire
• 2006 Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for "Cry Out to Jesus"
• 2007 Dove Award for Christmas Album of the Year for Christmas Offerings
• 2009 Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for Revelation
• 2009 Dove Award for Recorded Packaging of the Year for Revelation

Fans

Some Fans of the band are collectively called Gomers. Gomer, in a sense, is their last name. Each Gomer chooses a first name, such as "Happy Gomer", "Mac Gomer" etc. In the Bible, Gomer is the name of the prophet Hosea's unfaithful wife. No matter how many times Gomer left Hosea, Hosea would always rescue her when she got into trouble. This story is explored in Third Day's song "Gomer's Theme" off the album Conspiracy No. 5 . Fans began using the name for themselves on the forums of the Third Day website in 2001, as a way of identifying their human unfaithfulness to God and accepting his "purchase" as Hosea did. When attending Third Day concerts, Gomers wear the color orange, so that the band can see them easily from the stage. ^[18]. The band members of Third Day are also Gomers themselves; Mac is "Mac Gomer", Mark is "Bedhead Gomer", Tai is "Big Bottom Gomer", and David is "Doyle Gomer". ^[19]

Notes