Amy Grant was born
November 25, 1960, in Augusta, Georgia, the youngest of four sisters. In 1967, her
family relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where she is still based. There,
while in high school in 1976, Grant wrote her first song. She was offered a recording
contract five weeks before her 16th birthday. In 1977, she recorded her first
album, which was released in the spring of 1978, one month before her high
school graduation. Since then, from her original Christian base to the later
pop audience, Grant has sold over 30 million units worldwide, won six Grammy
Awards and 25 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and had the first Christian
album ever to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry of America
Association. Grant's 15th and newest album, How Mercy Looks from Here, was released on May 14, 2013.
Although Grant was honored with a star on Hollywood Walk of
Fame as recently as 2005 for her contributions to the entertainment industry,
it is clear that she has not retained the popularity she enjoyed in the 1980s.
Back then, she headlined Radio City
Music Hall; now she performed to a half empty Irving Plaza, the first time she ever played a stand-up club, she
noted from the stage. Nevertheless, tonight’s concert gained her back the crown
of “Queen of Christian Pop.” While remaining true to herself and her musical
identity, Grant seemed to reinvent herself for two hours and fifteen minutes,
including an encore of six songs. She scored well both with low key versions of
songs she originally recorded as electric and with rocking versions of songs
that were originally more folky. That her voice cracked from time to time (her
backup vocalists sang better than she did) seemed to humanize her songs. Not
exactly a greatest hits show (she did not sing some of her biggest hits), she
sang much of what her audience wanted to hear, interlaced with new songs. Most
of her directly Christian songs, included “Thy Word” and “El Shaddai,” were grouped
at the end of the set. From music to between-song chatter, the entire evening
felt endearingly homespun. My best concert buddy, a secular Jew, thought it was
a great concert and I, the observant Catholic, agreed.
