The Tennessean
May 5, 2002
By Sandy Smith, Staff Writer
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| Grant is presented a plaque marking the platinum award for Age to Age, the first Christian album to earn platinum. |
As the pieces of Grant's personal life came together, so have the pieces of her professional life. Early this year, her original managers, Mike Blanton and Dan Harrell, teamed up with her current managers, Chaz Corzine and Jennifer Cooke. Now all are equal partners in her career. Along with that came a creative spark, Grant says.
At a brainstorming session, they decided to somehow mark this year, 25 years since Grant recorded her first album.
''I don't know if I lack the confidence or a certain kind of ego, but I tend not to dream very big for myself,'' she says. ''If somebody on the team says, 'I've got a great idea and I think you should do it,' I'm excited. Mike said, 'I think you ought to honor your roots.' ''
But with the personal turmoil of the past few years — and the Christian music audience's tendency to shun those who sometimes fail — was it really about honoring legacy, or about finding a safe way to get back into the good graces of the Christian music world?
''That never crossed my mind,'' Grant said. ''It has been a few years since my marriage to Gary ended and I just always think you put out product and people like it or they don't. It's not about the artist.
''I may love an artist, but I'm not necessarily dying to sit in a room and talk to them. I wouldn't even know what to say. What I want to hear is the music. There's nothing about this record that is about trying to get back into people's good graces.''
And it's not fair to call Legacy just a hymns project. In addition to 10 traditional hymns, there are three new songs, one written by Grant, one by Gill and one by the two of them with producer Keith Thomas.
The one that may seem like it's some sort of explanation to what Grant has been through is the one she wrote alone, What You Already Own. But it's a song that was written in 1998, ''when I knew that I was about to end the life that I had known. I hear that song now and I relate to part of it, but I think of it in terms of a universal sense. I think about my children approaching some pretty trying times in their life, the adolescent years. When I wrote it, I couldn't see past my own experiences.''
The hymns don't all fall into the traditional arrangements. Take Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, the most liberal of the adaptations. Its arrangement sounds something like the Eagles (but with the presence of Gill as a producer, it may be more Pure Prairie League.)
''I think it's probably a good experience for all of us to take stock in where we came from, or in the foundational things about your family of origin. When Mike said 'let's do a hymns record,' My first response was 'everybody is doing a praise and worship album now.' I'm passively resistant to trends. He said, 'Don't think about it as a trend. Think about it as where you came from.' Then I got giddy.''
The album was recorded in a mere 25 days, most of it with baby Corinna on her lap, or on Gill's.
There's an album of original music as well, her first since 1997. Grant has been working on it for 20 months and it may be out as soon as this fall, or perhaps as late as next year.
All about Amy
22 million albums sold worldwide
9 plantinum albums, 1 quintuple platinum (Heart in Motion, 1991)
Most recent platinum album (House of Love, 1994)
Two albums (not counting the new one) that have failed to go platinum since her first platinum album in 1982
5-time Grammy award winner, the last in 1988
5 additional Grammy nominations
22 Dove awards
4-time Dove artist of the year
2001 Nashvillian of the Year
$125,000 earned on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which went to St. Jude's Children's Hospital)
1996 winner of the TNN Award, Sarah Cannon Humanitarian Award
1994 winner of Nashville Symphony's Harmony Award
1 MTV Award nomination (for Baby, Baby video)
No. 3, The Position That Baby, Baby Landed On The 1991 Year-End Radio Chart.
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