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 Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 6:48 am Post subject: Star-Telegram Concert Review |
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Amy Grant returns to her roots at Will Rogers Auditorium
By PUNCH SHAW Special to the Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH — Christian pop diva Amy Grant returned Friday night to
where it all began, performing on the same stage, Will Rogers
Auditorium, that hosted her first concert 30 years ago.
And the nostalgia did not stop there. In addition to returning to the
building where she "played in front of people I didn’t know for the
first time," Grant devoted the evening to material from and predating
her seminal 1988 album, Lead Me On, a classic the singer-songwriter
reissued this year with a second CD of bonus tracks.
Backed by an eight-piece band, Grant opened with the gentle ballad
Father’s Eyes and glided through a 95-minute set that closed with the
driving rocker Fight. In between, several Lead tracks were offered,
including Wait for the Healing, Shadows, All Right, 1974 and the title
song.
Even though many of the tunes had been sitting on Grant’s shelf for a
while, there was no apparent rust on them Friday.
The band — which included former Fort Worthian Warren Ham on
harmonica, saxophone, flute and backing vocals (not at the same time)
— was tight, and Grant embraced her lyrics as if they were still new
to her.
But as good as her players were, probably the best moment of the night
was the simple and straightforward El Shaddai, in which the singer
played with only acoustic-guitar accompaniment.
Her voice was especially lovely in this unadorned number.
In an era when a lot of the dinosaur rock bands are doing entire
albums live in concert, it was interesting to see Grant put her own
twist on that concept in a show that resurrected a set list of a time
gone by. The result was a solid evening’s entertainment that did not
sound nearly so dated as might be expected despite some definitively
1980s synth lines.
Instead, this retrospective served to underscore Grant’s contributions
to the Christian pop genre. Lead Me On was from a period when gospel
music was making a turn toward secular styles, and Friday’s concert
reminded us how gracefully Grant made that transition.
This type of music has evolved, but, even in this new light, these
early efforts still have power.
And it is probably safe to assume that Friday’s concert was even
better than when a 17-year-old Grant stepped onto that stage in 1978. |
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