On the 'A List' with Amy Grant
By Deborah Evans Price, Senior Music Editor, GospelMusicChannel.com
Amy Grant will definitely be experiencing déjà vu on her fall tour. In the wake of EMI Christian Music Group releasing a special 20th anniversary edition of her landmark Lead Me On album, Amy assembled a reunion tour that brings together seven of the 10 musicians that toured with her on the original outing.
“It’s going to be a fun walk down memory lane for all of us because we’ve all gone on to other lives,” Amy tells GospelMusicChannel.com of the lineup, which will include Jerry McPherson (Faith Hill), Chris Rodriguez (Keith Urban), Chris Eaton, Greg Morrow, Ken Rarick, and Warren Ham. “I’m excited about being back with everybody. What has been so amazing is people have wanted to come back and participate.”
Amy says she’s been pleasantly surprised by the way everyone’s schedule opened up and allowed them to participate in the tour, which kicks off October 16 in Phoenix. “The hardest thing for me was I knew I wasn’t going to be able to offer the paycheck that most of those guys make, and so I just said, ‘I’m extending the invitation and just know that you’re wanted and you do exactly what you need to do.’ So I was really honored that they came.”
Amy is looking forward to singing those old songs again, though she admits they might sound a tad different. “Time can age a person’s voice,” she admits. “So doing this Lead Me On tour, I’m not going to try to sound like I’m 27. I’m 47 and I’m happy to be 47. So when I open my mouth, the sound you hear, that’s what this woman sounds like.”
Originally issued in 1988, Lead Me On became one of Amy’s most critically acclaimed albums. The rerelease includes the original album and a second disc with new acoustic version of key tracks, as well as some live recordings from the original tour.
Amy says the album’s enduring appeal has surprised her. “When you’re recording, you’re just hoping that someone will listen to it,” she says. “At that point, 20 years down the road seemed forever. I probably assumed I would not be making music 20 years down the road. Your perspective changes with time and I remember just thinking, ‘I’m not going to be one of those women that’s just way past your prime and if I’m still singing when I’m 40, somebody get a hook and come drag me off stage.’ That’s how I felt in my 20s, but then you get to be in your 40s and go, ‘I’ve got so much more to say now!’”
Amy had a lot to say as an artist even back then, and in recalling the events that inspired Lead Me On, she remembers it being a tumultuous time. “I was pregnant with [my first child] Matt and my grandmother had just died. I was wrestling with facing some more adult issues. [Ex-husband] Gary [Chapman] and I had been married five years, which is long enough to have gone through some rough patches. I had just realized that life can’t be tied up in a neat bow and I wanted to reflect on that,” she says. “I think I had done a lot of pompom waving up until that point because of my real love for Jesus and my love of hearing songs that would build up people’s faith. I remember back then just going, ‘You know, life is really messy and there’s a lot of heartache.’ I was more interested in exploring the harder things in life.”
Of course, seasons change and so does an artist’s perspective. “The record right after this was "Baby, Baby" on the heels of probably 200 shows for Lead Me On,” she says. “At that point, I was so sick of being serious. It’s funny how your pendulum goes back and forth. But, at that point, [in recording Lead Me On] I was kind of tired of the pompom waving. I was like, ‘Hey, life is tough, buckle down, grow up.’ I just think the honesty on that record is compelling.”
Amy’s honesty and willingness to be transparent with her audience has made her an icon in the Christian music community, a pioneering artist whose crossover pop music success helped pave the way for other artists to expand into the mainstream. During the last three decades, Amy has sold more than 25 million albums and earned six GRAMMYs and 23 Dove Awards, as well as other accolades.
Baby, It’s Gonna Be Christmas
After she wraps the Lead Me On reunion tour, Amy and husband Vince Gill will embark on a Christmas trek. On September 30, EMI CMG is releasing Amy’s new album The Christmas Collection. The CD will feature favorite songs from her three previous holiday albums and four new recordings – Amy’s covers of “Jingle Bells” and “Count Your Blessings” as well as two new songs, “I Need A Silent Night” and “Baby, It’s Christmas.”
She co-wrote “I Need a Silent Night” with Chris Eaton, with whom she co-wrote the Christmas classic “Breath of Heaven.”
“He and I had not written together for eight years,” she says, adding how excited she is about their new effort. “The verses talk about how crazy Christmas has become and the chorus is sort of our response to that. It’s so commercialized, but I need a silent night. I like the message.”
“Baby, It’s Christmas” was co-written with her husband. “Vince was kind of messing around with those chords and it just sounded romantic. We wrote that over a cup of coffee one morning,” she says. “I don’t think anybody really thinks about Christmas Eve as being the most romantic time, especially if you have children, because you are exhausted, but if you could have a very romantic Christmas Eve, what would it be like? We tried to write a song that would bring that to life. We wrote this together and we’re both on it on the recording, but he’s not singing. I’m singing and he’s playing guitar.”
Grant says she enjoyed selecting the songs from her three previous Christmas collections that would populate the new release.“I sat down one night and went through each of those three earlier Christmas records and I picked moments that were favorite moments for me. They aren’t necessarily the best performances. For instance, [I chose] ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ because it’s Phil Keaggy playing guitar. I’m singing. It’s really not a good performance; I’m very pitchy but I love knowing that Phil is playing on this compilation.”
In recording new songs for The Christmas Collection, Amy worked with longtime friend Brown Bannister. “We work so well together. We have a lot of respect for each other. We’ve been friends since I was 14, maybe 15. I think it’s rare to have so many great creative memories with somebody.”
The Best Is Yet To Be
Amy has already started writing songs for her next studio album. “I’ve got a dozen songs that I’m ready to record, and I hope to be back in the studio and get at least a few of them recorded before I do this Lead Me On tour,” she says. “There’s a song I wrote about Vince and there’s a song that a friend and I wrote when she found her birth mom – always songs inspired by people in my life.”
Seeing her son Matt and his friends coping with tragedy inspired one of the new tunes. “There is a song that I wrote on the airplane flying out to the ACM’s [Academy of Country Music Awards] in Las Vegas,” she relates. “I had come from the cemetery watching my son and his friends bury one of their classmates and that song is called ‘Shovel In Hand.’”
Amy says she’s looking forward to getting in the studio and working on her new music. “As far as how everything sounds right now, they all sound like campfire songs because I’m playing them,” she says. “When you just sit down and play something with a guitar, they all sound the same, but I’m looking forward to being with some amazing musicians and saying ‘Let’s try this up tempo song as a ballad and this ballad as an up tempo song,’ – all that creative process. I really look forward to it.”
She’s not worried about how her new songs will be received or where they’ll find an audience. “I’m just going to continue doing what I’ve always done, and the pieces will just fall where they’ll fall. I’m so much more interested in making the music than I am promoting it.”
After all these years, Amy is still passionate about creating new music and is content with her place in life. “I’m glad everyday to be alive,” she says. “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I feel like I’m getting better at living in the day instead of living in the past and trying to anticipate tomorrow. From a songwriting standpoint, I hope my best songwriting is in the future.”
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About the Writer
Deborah Evans Price has covered Christian/Gospel music for Billboard magazine since 1994. She also contributes regularly to Country Weekly, CMA Close Up, Devo’Zine, Christian Single, HomeLife, BMI Music World, and other publications.
A Nashville resident since 1983, Deborah has held editorial posts at Radio & Records, Country News, American Songwriter and Billboard. Amy Grant, Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, Charlie Daniels, 3 Doors Down, Third Day, Don Henley, Bon Jovi, Chris Rice, Sandra Bullock, Mercy Me, Alan Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Carrie Underwood and Steven Curtis Chapman are among her many interviews. Additionally, she's a sought-after music industry analyst who has been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, TNN, The Today Show, and ABC PrimeTime Live, among other outlets.
Deborah is a member of the Gospel Music Association's board of directors and a graduate of Leadership Music. She resides south of Nashville with her husband, Gary, and 18-year-old son Trey.
