Meet and hear more from Jared Harder of The Voice Season 10

The Voice

Meet and hear more from Jared Harder of The Voice Season 10

March 19, 2016 By Mark Franklin 0

His audition: Jared Harder, 22, of Joplin, Missouri, auditioned with “Merry Go Round” by Kacey Musgraves. His solid performance prompted a chair turn from Blake Shelton, but no one else. That means Jared nailed down the final spot on Team Blake for Season 10. Blake complimented him on his voice and his song choice.

His background: Jared told The Voice he grew up as a pastor’s child in a close-knit community. His first performance was at a church event at age 3. As he got older, he learned to play drums, guitar and keyboards. He was almost 18 in 2011 when Joplin was struck by a tornado that killed 161 people. “When it was over, all you could hear were sirens and people screaming,” Jared recalls. “I had a lot of friends and family who were affected by it.” He put music on hold and worked every day for three months with Convoy of Hope, which set up tornado relief operations at his church. Four years later, he’s a newlywed and one of the managers at an ice cream and coffee shop. And his wife, Kylar, supports his dream of becoming a musician.

What the show didn’t show:

Prior to the tornado striking Joplin, Jared says he was leading worship at his church full time and performing at conferences and events for churches and religious organizations.

The relief effort in Joplin took him away from music for about a year with the exception of a handful of church services and a benefit concert to help the community recover.

Jared was previously bass player for an alternative Christian band called Lexington Heights. The group recorded some material in Nashville, he says, but nothing was ever released.

He was a guitarist for a contemporary Christian artist named Nate Perry and, more recently, has been working as guitarist for country singer Clint Austen.

Then there’s his role as guitarist and backup singer for the Kat Niles Band. “Think The Cadillac Three meets Sturgill Simpson, which has been a complete blast for me personally,” Jared says of the four-piece country band.

Jared says his favorite band has always been the Eagles. As for his preferred genre of music? “Vocally I’d say country, hands down. The guitarist side of me would say rock, though.”

And he explained his blind audition song choice this way: “I’ve always been a big Kacey fan, and I think there’s something real cool about a male artist doing a song that was originally made popular by a female artist, and vice versa. I also love the realness in Kacey’s writing. It’s hard to find artists as true as Kacey Musgraves in today’s industry. I wanna be THAT kind of artist.”

On iTunes: Just his performance from The Voice, though the Kat Niles Band released a 9-track album called “Til the Sun Comes Up” in 2014.

Keeping up with Jared:
Twitter: @JaredHarder
Facebook
YouTube

“Invisible” (Hunter Hayes cover)