Nashville, Sep 01: Always one to wear her heart on her sleeve musically, Amy Grant's willingness to be vulnerable and surprisingly forthright in her creative expression has earned the 42-year-old singer/songwriter devoted fans in contemporary Christian and mainstream pop circles. Since her last album, 1997's "Behind the Eyes," she divorced longtime husband Gary Chapman, a Christian singer/songwriter with whom she has three children. In 2000, she married country superstar Vince Gill, and they now have a 2-year-old daughter.
So the songs on Grant's new album, "Simple Things," out Aug. 19, reflect a season of life marked by choices, regrets, healing, love and a renewed appreciation for God's mercy.
She says, "One thing I like about this record taking three years to make is that it captured a really common but beautiful transformation," Grant tells Billboard as she settles onto a big, comfortable sofa in her Nashville home.

"People go through it all the time. We all make choices that carry great consequences and a lot of times things that bring about a lot of shame. I feel several songs capture the process of learning to forgive yourself, the process of trying to be honest -- and holding your head up again, feeling the beauty of the other side and feeling the weightlessness of grace and the maturity that come with that life experience." The album sold 28,000 copies in the week ended Aug. 24, according to Nielsen SoundScan, good enough for No. 1 on the Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart and No. 23 on the main Billboard 200 pop albums chart.
The first single, the title track, is currently at mainstream AC and Christian radio. It is No. 23 on the Billboard AC chart and No. 6 at Christian AC.
"Simple Things" is going to the Christian market through the Word/Curb/Warner Bros. label and is being worked to the mainstream pop market through Grant's longtime association with A&M Records.

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Like her previous albums, the new set is a portrait of Grant's current life and times, and it was an album she says couldn't be rushed. "I wasn't ready to pull a record together," she says of the original timetable. "I'd been through so many personal changes. I didn't want to belittle any of those things by not having enough personal time to process them."
The song "Happy" is an insightful revelation about delving deeper in a relationship and appreciating the power of little gestures.
"Beautiful" is about the end of a relationship and is, ironically, a duet with Gill. "How much more interesting to have two people that are in love sing a song about over," Grant says of the twist.
"Out in the Open" is about "freedom from shame and forgiving yourself." "I Don't Know Why" was co-written by Grant and Wayne Kirkpatrick.
The album was produced primarily by Keith Thomas (responsible for Grant's biggest hit, "Baby, Baby") with additional cuts produced by Brown Bannister and Kirkpatrick.

Grant and Gill will hit the road together starting Dec. 1 for a 19-date holiday tour called Vince and Amy's Simple Christmas. Word already put Grant on a promotional tour during which she performed sold-out shows at churches in Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; and other markets.

"I like the Amy Grant record, and we added it right away," says Barb Richards, PD at WAJI Fort Wayne, Ind. "I think she has to work pretty hard to restore herself as a pop artist. It has been a few years. At AC, we love to have familiar artists to play, but the song is very different for her. I keep thinking back to Cher and 'Believe'-- a different sound from a familiar artist, and it caught on. Maybe this will do the same for Amy." Though some Christian artists who have divorced have seen their popularity decline among Christian consumers with more conservative views, Grant won't have a problem, says Mark Lusk, Word's senior VP of marketing and artist development.

"There are those that are always going to be very critical of anybody who has done something that they don't feel is consistent with the Christian lifestyle, be it a divorce or what have you, but Amy's life has always been a positive witness. The way she has handled the difficulty of her marriage breaking up was very classy. People are just happy to see her back and happy to see her happy."

Bureau Report