by Mike Rimmer

It was twenty five years ago that a sixteen year old Amy Grant recorded a selection of songs as a present for her family. The tape fell into the hands of record company executives and Amy was snapped up. The passing years saw Amy establish herself as one of contemporary Christian music's premier artists and in the eighties her music crossed over into mainstream pop success and here in the UK she enjoyed a couple of hit singles including Baby Baby that reached no 2 in the British singles charts in 1992.

This year sees Amy celebrate her 25th year in the music business as she goes back to her roots to record a hymns album. It wasn't in her original plan, as she explains, 'For the last year and a half, I've been working on a different record, that's slated to come in September called Simple Things. It's all new songs and very pop orientated. Some songs are about my faith, some just fun, life songs'. Her original plans were put on hold when a friend came to Amy and suggested she celebrated 25 years by honouring her roots. It wasn't difficult for Amy to choose to record a hymns album because she confesses, 'Hymns shaped me. This is where my authentic roots are. This is why I've invested myself musically like I have and it was sheer joy to record'!

Stylistically the album has a very strong country and bluegrass feel, which is timely considering the success of the hit movie O Brother Where Art Thou? Amy comments, 'There were probably two or three times during the recording that people made reference to that, and I do think that there's something about that album getting such wide acceptance, that it does make everybody relax and not say, "Oh my gosh...there's a mandolin on here. Somebody arrest them"! Amy laughs and then continues, 'O Brother Where Art Thou? was a great movie and I feel that it proves there's an audience for this kind of music'.

Hymns have always been a part of Amy's life and she confesses, 'I just like thumbing through old texts of hymns. Two summers ago I was visiting a friend and she gave me a gift. It was a very old songbook that I recognised from my childhood. So when we were driving home, another friend and I were up front and she was driving. I had the visor pointed down, with the visor light shining on the book and we were singing 2 part harmony to all these old songs and the kids were saying, "How do you know all these songs"? Or "Oh I like that one, teach me that one"'! She reflects for a moment, 'I just think that it's mostly the words and whether I'm actually singing those songs or not, the words come to mind all the time'.

One of the major criteria for choosing the hymns on the album was that they had to have a personal connection for Amy. She explains, 'We were just trying to choose hymns that definitely have a memory for me. I think what's amazing is just how much information is packed into a hymn. In their language, they're not afraid to be highly intelligent and say really profound things'. There are plenty of people who question the lyrical depth of modern worship songs and Amy wonders out loud, 'Maybe things cycle around, but I also just think we are so glutted with information that maybe there is something about how information was distributed in the 18th and 19th century that if you only had a few songs to sing, that they would have to be pretty weighty. They would have to say an awful lot'.

Recording the album, Amy repeatedly encountered her own spiritual roots captured in the songs she was recording. She shares, 'At every turn, I was surprised and felt, "Oh my gosh! This is where I came from". It might not have all the kind of hip, cool and groovy trappings of somebody else's deep past but it's the real deal for me. I was so strengthened. I had just nearly forgotten...this is what I was fed Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, over and over again, by conscientious parents. This is my heritage. This is my history'!

When it came to recording her vocal parts in the studio she confesses that there was one hymn that was more difficult than the others. 'My Jesus I Love Thee was the one which really wiped me out to sing. I didn't know it was going to, it's just the way the song develops. I remember singing it as a kid and the first verse, "My Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine. For Thee all the follies of sin I resign". I remember singing that as a child and just thinking, "Well of course...duh! I'm not ever going to steal or cheat or lie or kill somebody. Of course not because that's like spitting in Jesus' face". Then there's the second verse, "I love because Thou hast first loved me and purchased my pardon, upon Calvary's tree". Even at seven years old, I knew that I had been purchased with the blood of Jesus. Those hymns do a pretty heavy thing, in the mind of a kid. No questions are left unanswered'.

Amy continues describing the recording process when it came to capturing that hymn. 'All of it was familiar to me but when it came for the time for me to sing that third verse, I just got so choked up time and time and time again. We had to keep rolling the tape back because it was, "In mansions of glory and endless delight. I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright. I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow..." And that picture is so powerful, it was just my undoing. People always talk about the timeline of Jesus' death. He knew everything that was ever going to happen. Every good thing and bad mistake and that really impacted me. That kind of ridiculously outlandish mercy and love and forgiveness were not wasted on this 41 year old woman'.

It seems fitting that Amy, who was shaped by the many hymns and songs she's chosen for the album should celebrate her first twenty five years of making Christian music by sharing these same songs with others. There's an opportunity for these timeless gems to keep on speaking to a new audience. And as her own music has inspired and encouraged a generation of fans, so her own legacy continues to grow. Here's to the next twenty five years!