Concert Review: Amy Grant

In 1991, Amy Grant's song “Good For Me” played via cassette tape over the car stereo, as I turned to the man I was dating at the time and said, “This song makes me think of you”. Evidently, he felt the same way as we were married shortly thereafter and just celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary a week ago.

So it seems only befitting that Contemporary Christian artist Amy Grant appeared in Dallas last night to sing her hits of life and love to a welcoming crowd at the Meyerson Symphony Center. Celebrated as Contemporary Christian music’s first major crossover success, Amy has earned three multiplatinum albums, six platinum, and four gold as well as 10 Top 40 pop singles, 17 Top 40 Adult Contemporary tracks, six Grammy awards, and numerous Dove Awards.

Amy was preceded onstage by a lively, upbeat performance by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra featuring four distinct works that would likely be enjoyed even by those who aren’t particularly accustomed to classical music.One such piece was based on traditional Mexican folk dances and seemed to whisk you away to a terra cotta tiled patio on a late summer night in a small Spanish-speaking town somewhere by a remote coast where romance blossoms as hips sway and a Mariachi band plays in the distance ... Hmmm, a little oddly specific? OK, maybe that’s just us.

Nevertheless, the pieces were excell

ent selections for this particular audience who may have been comprised, as Amy guessed, by a few men who were dragged to the show by their wives who had been listening to her music since the first grade.

After intermission, Amy, who turned 50 on her last birthday, hit the stage, strapped on her acoustic guitar, and invited us all to “Stay for A While”.Chatting conversationally to the audience throughout the show in her demure, soft-spoken style, Amy told short anecdotes between songs like “Takes a Little Time”, “Big Yellow Taxi”, “Children of the World”, and more including “House of Love” which she recorded with her husband, country music star Vince Gill.As if that was not enough, Amy and her band (intermittently accompanied by the DSO) concluded the night with a rapid fire succession of hits like “El Shaddai” “Lead Me On”, “Thy Word”, and “I Will Remember You”.

While backstage, Amy had noted the Dallas Symphony’s mission statement which is to “entertain, inspire and change lives through musical excellence”.During her decades spent carving out a path on the cutting edge of Christian music, Amy Grant has continued to offer a message of hope and happiness in a world that is oftentimes made up of opposition and heartbreak.

And that ... is “Better Than a Hallelujah” sometimes.

More about Amy Grant can be found in her recently published book, Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far, a collection of her favorite memories from her life and career.Tickets are also currently on sale for Christian music superstar Michael W. Smith who returns to the Meyerson to kick off the holidays with the DSO on December 12-13, 2011.

For more information, see performance details or the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at http://www.dallassymphony.com