Amy Grant On Tour

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LONDON dates 8th July.
 

Conventional wisdom has it that Amy Grant put Contemporary Christian music on the map. She surely did that, achieving such breakthroughs as being the first Contemporary Christian artist to have a platinum record, the first to hit #1 pop and the first to perform at the Grammys. Yet perhaps her greatest accomplishment was to open the door for a flood of other artists in pop as well as rock to sing about faith and soul and family and still grasp stardom. With that, her legacy as one of the most influential artists of the past couple of decades is assured.
Nearly 30 years ago Grant began embracing fans with a heartfelt singer-songwriter style mixing elements of pop, folk and country. Contemporary Christian music’s first major crossover success, she has to date earned three multiplatinum albums, six other platinum albums and four more gold albums; scored 10 Top 40 pop singles and 17 Top 40 Adult Contemporary tracks as well as a string of Contemporary Christian chart-toppers, and won six Grammy Awards plus numerous Dove Awards.
 

Born in Augusta, Georgia in 1960 during the residency of her doctor father, Grant was still a baby when her family (she’s the youngest of four daughters) moved back to its native Nashville. Her unlikely rise to icon status was sparked while she was working part-time sweeping floors and demagnetizing tapes in a Nashville studio. She had been singing in church and school for years and a friend, producer Brown Bannister, allowed her to use the studio to duplicate a tape of her original songs that she wanted to give to her family. But a Word Records producer heard the tape and played it over the phone for company executives. The 15-year-old was signed almost immediately.
Her self-titled 1977 debut album introduced a fresh-faced young woman with a fresh voice. A series of albums followed, including 1979′s Father’s Eyes which eventually went gold.
In 1982, Amy Grant was the first Contemporary Christian artist to reach platinum status with the release of her album, Age to Age, which also secured her a Grammy for Best Pop Gospel Performance.
 

Though Contemporary Christian music was clearly a growing force in the mid-’80s, no artist had yet crossed over to mainstream success. Then came Grant’s 1985 album Unguarded. Cracking the pop Top 40, earning platinum and winning a Grammy, Unguarded was a challenge within her gospel audience for its secular nature but it proved a watershed for the genre. The track “Find A Way” reached both Top 30 pop and Top 10 Adult Contemporary and its video even aired on MTV.
 

Now signed to major label A&M Records, another sign of her crossover appeal, her platinum 1988 album Lead Me On won the fifth of her Grammys and spun off the Top 40 AC hit “Saved By Love.” 1991′s Heart In Motion, her first Top 10 pop album and at five times platinum her biggest seller, brought together “Baby Baby” (#1 pop/#1 AC), “Every Heartbeat” (#2 pop/#2 AC), “That’s What Love Is For” (#7 pop/#1 AC), “Good For Me” (#8 pop/#4 AC) and “I Will Remember You” (#20 pop/#2 AC). The double platinum, House Of Love (1994) yielded several more top 10 pop hits.
 

Amy has continued to write and record music about life and love; faith and heartbreak; hope and healing. Her music continues to be part of the fabric of life for long time listeners and brand new fans.
 

In 2005, Amy hosted the NBC prime time series “Three Wishes” which brought her into millions of living rooms across the U.S. each Friday night.
In 2006, Amy added a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to her list of accolades. With friends, family, industry VIPs and fans in attendance, Grant’s husband/country music star Vince Gill and founder of A&M Records Jerry Moss spoke at the September 19th ceremony, along with Johnny Grant, Honorary Mayor of Hollywood and Walk of Fame Chairman.
On October 16, 2007, Amy published her first book, Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far (Flying Dolphin Press/Doubleday), a collection of her favorite memories from her life and her career. Also in 2007, Grant released her first-ever career spanning hits collection, Greatest Hits. Released around the world in CD and Special Edition CD/DVD packages, Greatest Hits features 19 tracks culled from all of Grant’s studio albums.
 

In the fall of 2008, Amy embarked on a 20 city “Lead Me On” reunion tour to celebrate the 20 years that had passed since that landmark recording was released. To coincide with the tour, EMI released a special “20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition” of the original Lead Me On album, which includes a bonus disc of previously unreleased live tracks and new acoustic recordings of a few songs.
 

After the “Lead Me On” tour finished, Amy joined her husband, Vince Gill, for a Christmas tour that featured many of the classic songs they have both recorded as well as several new songs from Amy’s newest release, The Christmas Collection.
 

Amy Grant has done more than simply be successful in two different music worlds; in her music, in fact thanks to her music, she has brought those two worlds together.
 
MUSIC
With six Grammys, numerous Dove Awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and numerous other accolades to her credit, Amy Grant is an American music icon who has erased lines between genres and earned the respect of fans and peers with her honesty, vulnerability and ceaseless creativity. Whether laying her soul bare in her 2008 Book “Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far” or exploring faith and family in a diverse catalog of hits from “El Shaddai” to “Baby Baby,” Grant’s artistry has continually resonated with audiences since she first hit the national spotlight as a fresh-faced teen with a guitar three decades ago.
 

Her latest effort, Somewhere Down the Road, is a potent collection that takes the listener on a musical journey that reverberates with messages of resiliency, promise and hope. The 12-track set includes four new songs, several previously unreleased gems from her musical vault and a newly recorded version of “Arms of Love.” The new album also serves up four poignant treasures from Grant’s existing songbook, including the powerful title track.
 

“From a work stand point, I’ve had the amazing opportunity that anything I’ve ever wanted to try, for some reason, the door has opened. I love music as much as I always have, but I feel very contented when it comes to work. What brings the sizzle back to me is a great idea and it can be somebody saying, ‘hey, I have this idea for a song!’ As soon as they speak the words I go, ‘Ahhh, that’s great. We’ve got to sit down and do it right now.’ That’s how I felt about this project.”
 

Somewhere Down the Road reflects an accomplished artist at a time of renewed creativity and also echoes the life of a woman who is not afraid to write and sing about life’s most heart-wrenching moments as well as the sublime joys. Amy Grant has always been honest, vulnerable, real, never afraid to share where she is on life’s journey. “There have been times in my life that I was sitting in the cat bird seat and everything was going my way but currently, this is a time [with] a lot of uncertainty within my extended family as we’ve experienced pain, loss, and joy,” admits Grant who has dealt with aging parents and the loss of a close friend this past year. “This is the kind of record where it takes maturity to put out, so we went back and looked at old songs, unreleased songs, and new songs that fit together in a way that I think will make a really amazing and intriguing journey.
 

The first single from the new project, “Better Than a Hallelujah,” penned by Chapin Hartford and Sarah Hart, is Grant’s first new radio single since “Simple Things” in 2003. When Amy’s manager, Jennifer Cooke, emailed her the song, she knew she had to record it. “The honesty of it, the vulnerability of the lyrics, the beautiful melody, and that the song found me right where I was in my own journey was incredibly powerful,” says Grant, admitting the song resonated strongly with her as she dealt with the death of her longtime friend musician Ruth McGinnis. “The song is just so poignant and redemptive. In the lyric there is no religious code or lingo going on and the message is true, it’s good news. I love every scenario it’s painting.”
Though Grant is an industry veteran, and one of a short list of artists to have scored No. 1 hits in each of the last three decades,Somewhere Down the Road finds her enjoying several first time experiences—among them recording in the new studio she and husband Vince Gill built in their Nashville home, contributing one of her own paintings as part of the cover art, and for the first time recording a duet with her 17-year-old-daughter Sarah. “‘Overnight’ was written by Luke Laird, Natalie Hemby and Audrey Spillman. I’ve known Natalie since she was six and she’s a great songwriter. She sent me a song that she had written called ‘Overnight.’ It’s talking about if things happened overnight, you wouldn’t appreciate the process. It says ‘If it all just happened overnight, you would never know what it means. If it all happened overnight, you would never learn to believe in what you can’t see.’” Though her stepdaughter, Jenny, sang background vocals on Grant’s hymns records and her eight-year-old daughter Corrina added a spoken word contribution to her last Christmas collection, this marks Grant’s first duet with one of her children. “I’ve wanted to sing with Sarah for a long time and when this song showed up I thought it would be perfect for us to record.”
 

“Hard Times” is another new tune on the album, which Grant co-wrote with Ian Fitchuk and Justin Loucks. “Mindy Smith asked me to sing a background part on her latest record and they were producing it,” Grant says of her introduction to her collaborators. “They already had the idea for the verses and I wrote the chorus and we wrote the last verse together. It’s been hard times on a lot of levels for a lot of people. I don’t know anybody that is saying this is the easiest and best time in life.”
 

Among the other new tracks, “Unafraid,” is a poignant ballad that has become a favorite at Grant’s live shows. “Women really relate to it,” Grant says of the song whose three verses chronicle women’s relationship to their husband, children and aging parents. “Anytime I have sung it live, I always have requests, ‘Please record that’ and that’s why I did.”
In culling through her musical vault to select previously unreleased recordings that fit with the theme of Somewhere Down the Road, two songs stood out as perfect for this collection “Come Into My World” and “What is the Chance of That.” “’Come Into My World’ is the rawest, most vulnerable of the two and it just required a lot of distance from that time in my life. I wrote that in the years prior to going through a divorce. . .and so the song is really a downer,” she admits. “I don’t feel that same way now and I hadn’t actually heard it in over a decade but was moved by it and thought ‘Wow, I remember how that felt. Thank goodness I don’t feel that way now, but that is a very real feeling for a lot of people at different times in life.’”
Every song of the album represents part of Grant’s journey as a mother, wife, songwriter, and believer. Born in Augusta, GA and raised in Nashville, the youngest of four daughters, Grant began her career in her teens, a young singer/songwriter with a guitar and an intense desire to share her faith with the world. Her talent took her beyond contemporary Christian music circles and she became a mainstream pop star in the 80s, her crossover success opening the door for every Christian artist wanting to share their faith from a broader platform. From her chart-topping pop success with “Baby Baby” and “Every Heartbeat” to songs like “Father’s Eyes,” “Lead Me On” and “El Shaddai” that shaped the Christian music landscape to her recent No. 1 duet with Matthew West “Give This Christmas Away,” Grant’s artistry and integrity have placed her at the forefront of American music.
 

She could easily rest of her considerable laurels, but the dawning of a new decade finds her as passionate as ever. “It’s all about the idea,” she says. “I love the song ‘Better Than A Hallelujah.’ I love the opportunity to get to do a song with my daughter. I love the concept of Somewhere Down the Road. I am personally moved by the concept of our journey through life and because of all the years that have come before, I find myself in a unique and somewhat rare position to be able to sing about that journey, and that’s an opportunity I don’t want to miss.”
 

CAREER BIO
Amy Grant’s career spans over 25 years and stretches from her roots in gospel into an iconic pop star, songwriter, television personality, and philanthropist. Grant has sold more than 30 million albums and won six Grammys ®in multiple categories, beginning with the platinum selling Age to Age in 1982. She also has six #1 hits, including “Baby, Baby,” and “Every Heartbeat” and is one of only two Christian artists to be awarded a star on the legendary Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Grant released her first live recording in 25 years with Time Again…Amy Grant Live in September 2006, and then announced her first ever label shift to EMI Music Group where her entire music catalog was re-mastered and released via a GREATEST HITS CD and made available for the first time digitally.
 

In the fall of 2008 she released her first new Christmas music in 9 years, THE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION, which in addition to four new songs, features tracks that were hand-picked by Grant to include the best songs from her previous albums that result in a classic Christmas album reminiscent of the Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, etc. albums of old.
 

Amy now returns with her first album of all new music in 7 years, Somewhere Down The Road.  She could easily rest on her considerable laurels, but the dawning of a new decade finds her as passionate as ever. “It’s all about the idea,” she says. “I love the song ‘Better Than A Hallelujah.’ I love the opportunity to get to do a song with my daughter. I love the concept of Somewhere Down the Road. I am personally moved by the concept of our journey through life and because of all the years that have come before, I find myself in a unique and somewhat rare position to be able to sing about that journey, and that’s an opportunity I don’t want to miss.”