AMY GRANT
Sometimes in moving forward, it’s good to take a step back and remember where you came from. Amy Grant does just that on her latest album, Be Still And Know...Hymns & Faith, a collection that finds the six-time Grammy winner sharing classic songs that have buoyed her faith since childhood and helped lay the foundation for her creative journey.
“For people of faith, hymns are our oral tradition,” Grant says. “When I think about when I learned these songs, the heyday of these songs in my life when everybody was singing them, it was a totally different landscape than I find myself in now.”
Growing up the youngest of four daughters, hymns were staples in the Grant family songbook. “They were so much a part of my childhood and there’s nowhere you can go any more to get the intensity of that relationship with hymns,” she says. “We sang hymns like people sing the national anthem before a ballgame. It was hymns before everything. We sang hymns in our homes, in our church three times a week. There would be some Sunday nights where all we did was sing hymns. A lot of times on Wednesday nights we would actually re-learn old hymns. It was part of the worship service to learn how to sing all the parts. It was so interactive.”
Grant’s lengthy relationship with these timeless songs imbues the collection with an extra measure of depth and resonance. Listening to Be Still And Know...Hymns & Faith is like hearing a gifted storyteller share her favorite truths. “These songs have already stood the test of time; most of them are 100 years old, if not more,” she says. “It’s always a good investment to work with things that have stood the test of time.”
This isn’t Grant’s first time shining a light on her favorite hymns. The new album features several tracks from previously released projects Legacy...Hymns & Faith and Rock of Ages...Hymns & Faith, which have sold more than 800,000 copies combined. This third collection features such timeless hymns as “Rock of Ages,” “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus,” “Softly and Tenderly” and “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Working with her husband, Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill, Grant also recorded two new tunes, “Power In The Blood” and “Be Still And Know.” “It’s an original song,” she says of “Be Still and Know.” “I did a final re-write of that song, but I’ve actually been playing it in my shows and have had a lot of requests for that song. I had never recorded it, so I was glad to have a chance to record it for this record.”
The project also includes “Deep as It is Wide,” a modern gem written by country newcomer Eric Paslay that features Paslay and Sheryl Crow joining Grant on vocals. “I just love it,” she enthuses. “I love doing it with three of us because it’s like a conversation. To me, that’s like the hymn tradition. Hymns are songs that primarily you sing to each other as encouragement and a reminder of truth.”
Grant has been delivering truth through music for more than 30 years. She first rose to prominence as a fresh-faced teen with an engaging voice and a compelling gift as a songwriter. Though she earned her college education at Vanderbilt University, music was Grant’s calling. “My senior year in college everybody was interviewing for real jobs and that was the fork in the road for me,” she says. “That’s when I realized that music wasn’t just a hobby. I had this amazing opportunity to do something that I loved, that – miracle of miracles – looked like it was going to pay the bills. I’ve loved it and it’s brought me into a community with so many interesting people.”
After becoming the top-selling artist in Christian music, Grant expanded her creative reach into mainstream pop with such upbeat hits as “Baby Baby” and “Every Heartbeat” from her chart-topping 1991 Heart in Motion album. She became the first Contemporary Christian artist to score a platinum album, the first to hit No. 1 on the pop charts, and the first to perform at the Grammys. Since then she’s sold more than 30 million albums, won six Grammy Awards and 26 Dove Awards, including four Artist of the Year honors. She was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the same year.
Her list of certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America is impressive, including one quintuple platinum album, one triple platinum album, one double platinum album, four platinum albums and six gold albums. Grant has appeared on numerous television shows, including “Good Morning America,” “The Today Show,” “Oprah,” “Late Night with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and many others.
Grant has accomplished more during her career than most artists ever dream of, but awards and chart statistics aren’t anything she dwells on. “There was a time when I wanted to make sure I had my say creatively, and I have,” she smiles. “I feel like I live so much in the present. I really do. I have experienced, like everybody else, what feels like ‘chapters’ in life. And there were chapters that felt bigger than life. And now, my life feels like we’re all sitting around in the living room. Whether I am actually at my house, or whether I’m on a stage, or whether I’m meeting somebody sitting next to them on an airplane or at the coffee shop, that’s how it feels. And I don’t think about those earlier accomplishments. They don’t have anything to do with how I value myself today. In the last decade and a half, I have felt more like the big sister to the new artists coming along. I’m proud of the fact that I never quit, but it’s so much more about experiencing the creative community and not achieving some personal goal.”
Her most recent projects have indulged Grant’s love of community. In 2013, she released How Mercy Looks From Here, a landmark album that featured collaborations with heroes such as James Taylor and Carole King as well as Crow, Paslay, Will Hoge and stepdaughter Jenny Gill. The project became her 16th No. 1 album in the Christian genre. The following year, Grant’s classic hits were in the spotlight again with In Motion: The Remixes, a collection of her hits remixed by well known remix engineers and DJs who skillfully reinvented her classic catalog for a new generation of music lovers. The album hit the top five on Billboard’s Electronic Albums chart.
Be Still And Know...Hymns & Faith represents Grant’s work with acclaimed producers Brown Bannister and Marshall Altman as well as Gill. “I’ve worked with some great producers, and there’s something really special and unique about each one of them, but the casualness of working with Vince is unlike anything else,” says Grant, who recorded with Gill in their home studio. “It was just one more great memory to add to our home.”
In a career filled with great memories and incredible music, the songs on Be Still And Know...Hymns & Faith occupy a special place for Grant, and she’s hoping listeners will also feel a personal connection. “I want this to feel like that this record was made for one person,” she says. “I just wanted it to feel like it was recorded for an audience of one. I hope that comes off.”
Grant also hopes listeners will feel inspired and encouraged by the power in these classic hymns. “Worship music is praise to God. The hymn tradition is slightly different,” she says. “A lot of hymns are meant to be sung to each other. You’re supposed to have your eyes open, looking at each other. When you’re singing a worship song, it feels weird to open your eyes and smile at the person next to you. But a lot of hymn singing is people singing to each other, reminding each other of truth. It’s very interactive. You’re encouraging each other.”
Sharing truth and offering encouragement have long been part of Amy Grant’s musical legacy, and it’s a mission that continues on Be Still And Know...Hymns & Faith. “You get to a point in life where you say, ‘There’s more time behind me than what’s ahead,’” Grant says wistfully. “So that makes me feel an incredible amount of gratitude and appreciation for any time I get to make music. I do still love it.”
And it definitely shows.