The New York Post
August 25, 2002
By Mark Bialczak, Staff writer
Amy Grant acted like she was hosting the intimate crowd of 1,644 in her living room Saturday night instead of at the state fair Grandstand.
The Nashville star singer of Christian and pop hits was funny, tender and way more ready to retake the spotlight than she wanted to admit.
With a worthy five-piece band and two backup singers, Grant took her guests through a timeline of her career.
There were the timeless traditional worship songs from her 2002 disc, "Legacy: Hymns and Faith."
"When I was young, I thought by the time you did a hymn record, they're ready to dig a hole 6 feet deep and throw you in," Grant said. "But to feel the beauty of lyrics people have been singing for 100 years, that's powerful."
Grant's simple but passionate work on "My Jesus, I Love Thee" and "I Need Thee Every Hour/Nothing But the Blood" indeed packed a punch, especially when she and the band cranked it up into some soaring country gospel for the second half of the latter.
Grant spotted a sign held up by a woman near the front of the crowd and asked that it be passed onstage so she could read it.
It was a plea from someone named Carrie to play "My Father's Eyes" because she danced to that song with her father, Tom, at her wedding a year ago.
Grant told her to hold on, and several songs later, there came the tender ballad. That soon was followed by one of Grant's favorites, "El Shaddai."
"I have terminal mellow," Grant announced.
Not so.
She knew how to crank it up, too, and got things moving early with a cool cover of Joni Mitchell's classic "Big Yellow Taxi."
Of course, Grant's own monster hit, "Baby, Baby," stirred things up in a big way.
Youngsters happily stood dancing side by side in the crowd as their parents watched. It was a terrific, wholesome moment.
Grant told some tales about her children, too, like her 14-year-old daughter Millie, who won't let Grant move too much in public.
"What do you mean I'm embarrassing you. We're in our driveway," Grant said she told Millie recently.
"I can dance tonight in Syracuse, because I'm free of Millie," Grant said.
Then she related a warm and sweet tale of a 13-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who's Make-A-Wish was to meet Grant. The girl told Grant while riding together in the singer's car that "Amy, I'm normal on the inside."
Grant warmly recalled how shortly after that, the pair filled the girl's request when they sang Grant's "Children of the World" together.
It sounded sweet with just Grant and her backup singers, too.
Another big cheer went up for the duet Grant made with her husband, Vince Gill. "House of Love" was a hit in 1995, some four years before they married.
"Vince would like to be here tonight, but he's playing a state fair in St. Paul," Grant said. "We're the state fair couple."
Opening act Mark Schultz also displayed a warm, chatty personality.
The Nashville keyboardist and singer has earned Dove Award nominations for new artist of the year, male vocalist of the year, pop/contemporary album of the year, song of the year and pop/contemporary recorded song.
"He's My Son" is that highly nominated song. He wrote the tender tale for his mom as a belated birthday present.
It's fairly certain to say that it made her very, very happy.
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