Past Internet Articles About Amy Grant

Amy Goes Barefoot in Dallas
03/24/08

DALLAS -- Amy Grant showed off her singer-songwriter chops at the Meyerson Symphony Center on Friday night.

Sure, Grant made her name as a Christian-crossover artist in the 1980s; she helped launch the genre. But whether singing praise music or a wry story-ballad, Grant always saw herself as a girl with a guitar.

That's how she presented herself Friday night. Yes, she was fronting a crackerjack seven-piece backup band, sometimes joined by the full Dallas Symphony. But throughout her 15-song, hour-or-more set, she was front and center in a red, floor-length dress with a guitar strapped over her bare shoulders.

She set forth her singer-songwriter credentials with tunes such as Saved by Love, House of Love and Oh How the Years Go By, country-flavored pop songs about rough spots and good times. On Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi she invited the audience to sing along. She sang Jimmy Webb's These Old Walls as a duet, just her and the piano. On Innocence Lost, an Irish whistle added a restlessness to the desolate lyrics.

Grant is a delightful performer, completely natural and at ease. She set the tone of her set right after her opening number, Stay For Awhile, when she announced, "I've got to get this mike higher or take these heels off." She performed barefoot for the rest of the night.

The symphony wasn't always playing backup. In the first half, violinist Gary Levinson played a savvy, singing rendition of Kreisler's Preludium and Allegro, and Richard Kaufman led a 40-minute set of music from films about Easter. One tune, Miklos Rozsa's Parade of the Charioteers from Ben Hur, showed that John Williams wasn't the first movie composer to muster brass for bold, martial effects.