My Review
Thursday, November 20, 2008 Hershey, PA
Soundcheck was supposed to start at 3:30 pm but Amy & the band came out around 4 pm. They did parts of songs like Sing Your Praise to the Lord, Tennessee Christmas, & a few more. Amy was drinking from a mug & working out some parts of songs. She did not come down to see FOA members after but there were a lot of us there.
Between the soundcheck & the show, I went with some FOA members to the Hershey Pantry & let me tell you, they have great food & even bigger, tastier desserts. Great place to eat with great FOA members before the show. We drove back to the venue & had time til the start.
Amy was really enjoying herself. She said she was not doing the tour to revive her career to what it was 20 years ago but to take a step back & see how much more excited she was back then & to try & help us relive that excitement. She said if there was a song we wanted to dance to to do it this time around because she was not touring again in 20 years.
Amy started out just her singing "Father's Eyes" then the rest of the band came out & sang "Love of Another Kind" which go the night rocking & with each new upbeat song, the night was rockin'. Before Amy sang "1974", she talked about how songs can capture a moment in time & about how often she as a kid went to church with her family. She commented that they went several times a week & on Sunday nights in the summer, she'd be playing & once in a great while her mom would say they wouldn't go to church & she'd be happy to play. She talked about the church movement at that time also. Amy got everyone to their feet for "Everywhere I Go" to dip & sway like the old days. She said that somepeople were probably dreading this part. She sang "Saved By Love" next saying she wrote it for her sister. She did a kind of slowed down version of "Saved By Love" that started with just Amy & the piano, sounded cool. She sang "El Shaddai" with her guitar & then went right into "Sing Your Praise To The Lord". It was a little different with hand clips inserted in the song. Amy commented that she had to slow it down as she could not sing it that fast nowadays. Amy talked about Rich Mullins passing & sang "All I Ever Have To Be". Amy introduced her band members, Flute, Vocals - Warren Hamm, Percussion- Kim Keyes (not on the original LMO tour as she was in preschool Amy said), Keyboards-Ken Lyric, Keyboards/Vocals- Chris Eaton, Drums-Greg Mar, Guitar-Mike Brigadello, Guitar - Chris Rodriguez, Guitar - Jerry McPherson. Chris Eaton did a song from his new cd which was quite good. Not many in the audience got up & danced much unless Amy told them to but when "Lead Me On" came on after Chris Eaton, I could not help but get up & rock when the music started to build up.
Amy sang "Find a Way", "Wise Up", "Angels", &"Fight" before exiting the stage to take a break before her encore. When Amy came back out, people were yelling out old songs & Amy commented that they were showing there age. She sang "Stay For Awhile" & then "Tennessee Christmas". Amy talked about either doing a short few songs or doing more to with we wanted the longer version so she did some new songs. She did stop to tune her guitar & talked about how she killed the momentum but that did not matter to her now. Amy sang her new song "What We're Looking For". She talked about being a songwriter & about how it looks like you're doing nothing but you are thinking. Amy said the "Love Has Made Me Unafraid" was a song she wrote a few weeks ago that gave her a real snot cry every time she sang it since she wrote it but she would not do that tonight. She talked about that it captured how she really felt at that moment. It had a line in it about her mom getting older & realizing that she was closer to heaven but love had made her unafraid, very moving song. The song "The Wind in Your Hair" was upbeat & Amy said she wrote it with Kim Keyes in Nevada on this tour. Amy then sang "Say Once More", my favorite song from Lead Me On with just a guitar- perfect. She ended the evening with "Turn, Turn, Turn". All in all the whole concert was very upbeat & a rockin' great time reliving the Lead Me On era & before of songs that made me love Amy Grant's music. I am SO glad I got to attend as it was the BEST Amy show I've seen in a long time.
The Band
Band
Flute, Vocals- Warren Hamm
Percussion/Vocals- Kim Keyes
Keyboards- Ken Lyric
Keyboards/Vocals- Chris Eaton
Drums- Greg Mar
Guitar- Mike Brigadello
Guitar- Chris Rodriguez
Guitar- Jerry McPherson
