SRobin6053@aol.com
Guest
|
 Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:18 am Post subject: Wichita Eagle Interview/Article |
 |
|
Grant to perform old favorites in Wichita
Most of the songs Amy Grant will sing Sunday are from her contemporary
Christian days.
BY ED CONDRAN
Wichita Eagle correspondent
Many recording artists have short memories when it comes to concert
set lists. New songs are often showcased. Recent material will
complement those fresh cuts. There might be an old nugget or two
thrown in for good measure.
Then there's Amy Grant.
With the exception of a few unrecorded tunes that close her show,
Grant says she'll sing only tunes from the first decade of her career
-- primarily her contemporary Christian days -- when she performs
Sunday at Central Christian Church in Wichita.
"I'm not playing anything I recorded after 1988," Grant said while
calling from an airport in Nashville. "Music has a way of bringing
back forgotten memories, and that's what I'm doing with this tour. I
just want to remind people who they were before they had
responsibilities and no energy after having five children. When people
hear songs from another era, they can become that person again."
Jennifer Cook, Grant's manager, inspired the concept.
"She went to a Donny Osmond concert and she was looking around at
these (middle-aged) women who were screaming their lungs out and she
complained to the person next to her about these lunatics," Grant
said. "Then when Donny Osmond sang an old song like 'Puppy Love,' she
shrieked without warning. The women next to her said, 'Didn't you say
that these women screaming are lunatics?' She said, 'Yes, they were
screaming at the new stuff. I screamed at an old hit and it made me
feel like I was 9 years old again.' That experience just sounded
great."
Grant will ignore her 1991 pop breakthrough album, which included such
hits as "Baby Baby" and "Every Heartbeat."
"It's all right," Grant said. "I'm doing something I have to do. You
can't play every song when you go on tour. I'm going way back with
this tour."
It's almost hard to believe that Grant, 47, marked her 30th
anniversary in show business in 2007.
"I started early," Grant said. "I was in my teens. I knew what I
wanted to do. Thirty years is a long time to do something. It's great
but I didn't celebrate it. I've been celebrated enough for three
lifetimes."
Nearly four years have passed since Grant's last studio album of new
material, "Rock of Ages... Hymns & Faith." Grant is overdue to add to
her original canon.
"I'm working on it," she said, adding that she has written 14 songs,
some of which she'll perform on Sunday. "When you hear them at the
show, they'll sound like campfire songs. It'll just be me and my
guitar. I'll get in the studio next year and put out the album."
The project has been delayed by everyday life. "I have a husband
(country artist Vince Gill) and children," Grant said. "I have a son
in college. I have a 7-year-old daughter. I'm trying to balance
everything, and that takes time."
It's not like Grant's initial decade in music.
"I didn't have a child until 1987, so things were much different for
me then," Grant said. "But it was much different for a lot people
during the '80s. Maybe people will realize that during this show."
If you go
Where: Central Christian Church, 2929 N. Rock Road
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
How much: Tickets $30 and $35, available at Perfect Peace, Family
Christian Stores, the church, online at www.itickets.com or
www.praisecalendar.com, or by calling 800-965-9324. Information,
316-612-7983. |
|
