Amy Grant is dabbling in a little bit of nostalgia.
On stage at The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, she’s swaying in place, eyes closed, as she leads her five-piece band and two backup singers via “Keep for Awhile,” her 1986 ode to enduring friendship.
She sticks to the ‘80s a bit longer, marching in place to “Angels” in her silver-fringed black pantsuit and uplifting the sold-out crowd with “Discover a Means,” her 1985 anthem of cheerful optimism and inaugural crossover hit from Christian to up to date pop star.
Lower than per week earlier, Grant was compelled to postpone her present in Huntsville, Alabama, due to laryngitis. However now she is rolling via two units of music, her relentless smile twinkling even whereas she sings, her voice shedding its gentle rasp as she continues via a 45-year-plus catalog.
Grant shared one thing particular amongst hits “Someplace Down the Street” (her “track model of a hug”) and a uncommon rendition of her 1986 smash duet with Peter Cetera, “The Subsequent Time I Fall” (the place guitarist Gene Miller impressively dealt with the male counterpoint): Her first new non-holiday music in a decade.
Grant launched “Timber We’ll By no means See” and “What You Heard” in March and April. Each contemplative, each knowledgeable by Grant’s mellow vocals, the tracks have jumpstarted Grant’s return to songwriting.
“It’s fascinating to start out writing within the first quarter (of life) and nonetheless be writing within the fourth quarter,” she tells an viewers that’s respectfully quiet between songs.
On the day that Grant postponed her Alabama present, she (hoarsely) talked with USA TODAY about her new music and the surprising “items” she’s skilled in a troublesome previous yr.
Amy Grant ‘feels good’ as she continues to recuperate from bike accident
In July 2022, Grant was hospitalized after a critical bike accident wherein she hit a pothole and was knocked unconscious close to her dwelling in Nashville, Tennessee.
Her restoration interval compelled the postponement of her fall tour till this yr. Her return, which incorporates spattered dates all through the nation till October after which her conventional Christmas concert events with husband Vince Gill at The Ryman in Nashville, has fed her soul.
“Oh my goodness, I’ve loved being again on the street a lot,” she says. “Being sick made me understand how a lot I depend on feeling good more often than not. I don’t know if it’s a post-COVID factor, too, however I discover the longer you take pleasure in one thing – both music or a sporting occasion or a stroll within the woods – with time, that degree of appreciation to nonetheless get to do these issues will increase.”
Although she’s spoken in regards to the reminiscence loss that occurred after her fall, Grant says now that she “feels good” as she continues to rebuild her stamina.
However, as is her means, the gracious Grant managed to extract one thing fortuitous from her accident.
“One of many hidden items of the bike wreck was it precipitated the expansion of a thyroglossal duct cyst,” she says. Just like the congenital coronary heart situation that led to Grant’s open coronary heart surgical procedure in 2020, the cyst was one other “freakish factor from within the womb.”
Her voice coach seen that her Adam’s apple was off heart because of the cyst, sometimes a mass or lump crammed with fluid on the entrance a part of the neck.
“The trauma of the bike accident made it develop, or I by no means would have recognized I had it,” Grant says.
The removing of the “quail egg-sized” cyst additionally included taking out a part of a neck bone.
However once more, Grant is sanguine.
“To me, it felt like with every little thing that has gone fallacious, afterward it has gone higher. And that could be a reward,” she says.
Amy Grant has ‘so many ideas’ about new music
Grant’s return to writing and recording new music took a circuitous – and fateful – path. Recording a duet with Christian singer Cory Asbury (“These Are the Days That We’ll Need Again”) final yr led her to chatting with Asbury’s producer, Marshall Altman, who shared particulars a couple of track he’d written, “Timber We’ll By no means See.”
Grant felt an instantaneous connection to the track, a similar story of bushes residing on properly past the individuals who planted them.
“What compelled me to sing new music? I assume it was that I confirmed up,” Grant says. “I used to be by no means a child who appeared within the mirror singing right into a hairbrush. I’ve at all times considered myself because the unlikely artist as a result of I used to be so joyful listening to everybody else’s stuff.”
With “What You Heard,” Grant pulled the lyrics straight from a remedy session with considered one of her youngsters (final yr she and Gill “gave our entire household the reward of remedy”).
“It’s about how phrases matter and miscommunications are simple,” Grant says. “Even the thriller of asking the query, ‘What did you simply hear that I stated?’”
Going ahead, Grant admits that she has “no thought” the place her present writing will take her, or how lengthy it’s going to take to finish.
“I’m a bit of slower at every little thing proper now. I don’t know if that’s nonetheless my street to restoration or the place I’m in life,” she says. “However now I’ve so many ideas at 62, and I’m so blessed.”
Kennedy Middle Honors ‘gave us such a present’
In December, Grant, together with U2, George Clooney, Gladys Knight and Tania León, have been bestowed with a Kennedy Middle Honor, the distinguished award denoting a lifetime of contribution to the performing arts and American tradition.
The prolonged attain of Grant’s affect beamed via performances from Sheryl Crow, The Highwomen (Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby) and Michael W. Smith with the Howard College Gospel Choir.
Months later, Grant nonetheless sounds elated recalling the particular weekend: Sitting and speaking with Knight and her husband, William McDowell; joking with Bono in regards to the prolonged guitar-centric conversations occurring between the Edge and Gill; and largely, having the ability to rejoice with a lifetime of family and friends.
“I invited everybody I may purchase a ticket for. I purchased their flights and their resort rooms. That was an costly award for me,” Grant says with amusing. “However I needed the individuals who mattered to me – songwriters, producers, the entire entourage. As a result of it was all of our work (being honored).”
Grant doesn’t hesitate when requested if she’ll attend this yr’s ceremony, as is custom for earlier honorees.
“Are you kidding me? Sure! I already had Christmas reveals booked, however after I came upon I used to be invited again, we moved these reveals,” she says. “The Kennedy Middle gave such a present to all of us to take pleasure in one another’s firm.”
Music notes
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