The iconic singer with a 40-years-plus career unfurled 25 songs during her Monday tour stop at DeVos Performance Hall. The review, photos and set list at Local Spins.
‘Better Than a Hallelujah’: Amy Grant on stage at Devos Performance Hall. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
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Before she sang a single note Monday, Amy Grant prepared her DeVos Performance Hall audience.
“If you bought a ticket to this show, you must like old music,” grinned the singer-songwriter.
Grant and her seven band members were poised for a 25-song journey as far back as the 1960s, unveiling inspirational/pop anthems from throughout her recording career – which began when she was a teenager.
The Band Behind the Voice: Grant and her talented crew. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
Music has a unique quality, she said. “Song by song (it) peels the years off….I’m about to peel you like an onion.”
The youthful-looking artist (she turns 64 next month), began with one of her more overlooked cover tunes, “Nobody Home” before tagging it with the pop radio hit “Lucky One.” That’s one of several songs that brought cheers from its opening notes.
Grant dipped into folk in her encore with the oft-recorded “Turn, Turn, Turn” and also performed her cover of another ’60’s hit, “Put A Little Love in Your Heart.”
Several of her backing artists have been with her for years. Guitarist Jerry McPherson, who goes back to her ’80s and ’90s heydey, did most of the lead electric guitar work. Background vocalist Kim Keyes has also been there for decades. The band director is drummer John Hammond who spread the spotlight among the players.
SWEETNESS, UPLIFTING MESSAGES, COMPELLING STORIES
Guitarist/vocalist Gene Miller joined Grant for “House of Love,” providing the vocals that Vince Gill did on Grant’s recorded version.
And there are the megahits: Amy and gang polished off her best known dance-worthy pop grooves. The hook-filled “Baby Baby,” the polished pop of “Every Heartbeat” and the bouncy “Good For Me,” all big radio hits still carry some sparkle after 30 years.
The latter was her first song following the intermission, when she emerged in a floor length, sleeveless, ruffled gown marked by a large floral print – a contrast after the black slacks and jacket in her opening set.
Enlightening: Grant’s songs and stories. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
Her uplifting messages were punctuated by her more serious anthems calling out injustice, including the rather dark, edgy “What About the Love” and the probing “Lead Me On,” which closed her opening set. The band members shone on the broad shouldered arrangements and the larger-than-life settings.
And Grant’s Christian music fans were pleased she selected three songs from her 1982 breakthrough inspirational album, “Age to Age.” The worshipful and slow ballad “El Shaddai” with some Hebrew lyrics was showcased by Grant with just her vocals and guitar. The keyboard intro run-up to “Sing Your Praise (to the Lord) rang true as did the innocence of the faith statement “I Have Decided.”
Although her voice was not particularly strong Monday, there was no sign of the difficulty she experienced immediately after her bicycle accident of two years ago. A brain injury caused some memory loss, which affected her musical recall.
Her songs speak for themselves. But somehow there is a also sweetness in listening to affable Amy simply describe some of her life experiences which spur the songs: relationships with her adult children, her belief that good things happen when we’re exposed to art, and a chance encounter with noted singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell just before Grant was about to record Mitchell’s song “Big Yellow Taxi.”
All part of peeling back the layers between artist and audience.
PHOTO GALLERY: Amy Grant at DeVos Performance Hall
Photos by Chelsea Whitaker
1. Nobody Home
2. Lucky One
3. Our Time is Now
4. What Is the Chance of That
5. I Have Decided
6. Helping Hand
7. Angels
8. What You Heard
9. Come Be With Me
10. That’s What Love Is For
11. Baby, Baby
12. Every Heartbeat
13. Put A Little Love In Your Heart
Intermission
14. Good For Me
15. House of Love
16. Big Yellow Taxi
17. Better Than A Hallelujah
18. El Shaddai
19. Trees (We’ll Never See)
20. What About The Love
21. Love Will Find A Way
22. Sing Your Praise
23. Lead Me On
Encore
24. Turn, Turn, Turn
25. Love of Another Kind
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