“Somewhere Down the Road” is here  – a new CD released by Amy Grant, one of America’s most loved and respected artists whose veteran career spans three decades. She put Contemporary Christian music “on the map” being the first artist of the genre to claim a platinum record, perform at the Grammy’s and also be the first Contemporary Christian artist to hit #1 on the pop charts.

Amy, who is married to Vince Gill of legendary country music stardom, has been singing and writing songs with mixed elements of folk, country and Contemporary Christian and has 3 multi-platinum albums, 6 other platinum and 4 gold albums to her credit.

Also to this great lady’s credit are the numerous charities she has helped over the years, including St. Jude Research Hospital, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Compassion International, Red Cross, Second Harvest Food Bank, Woman’s Cancer Research Fund, Sarah Cannon Cancer Center and a host of others too numerous to mention here. She has also hosted an NBC prime time series “Three Wishes” and added a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Her new album is a collection of new music as well as four previous songs, including a new and revised version of “Arms of Love”, first written in 1982. Not only was most of the album recorded in the home she shares with Vince, he helped produce the album and also sang background vocals along with his daughter, Jenny and her daughter, Sarah Chapman, from her marriage to singer Gary Chapman. You can hear a duet by Amy and Sarah on “Overnight”.

The first single from the album, “Better Than A Hallelujah,” has been five weeks at No. 24 on the Billboard list of most popular Christian songs. It is a wonderfully honest and poignant song that points out you do not have to be dressed up in fashion just to talk to God. The song speaks of lullabies and mothers in tears in the dead of the night, soldiers who plea not to die, and even the cry of a drunkard. This song makes you realize that many times all these things that we think about or cry about, or even laugh about – if we share them all with God whenever we want to, He thinks it’s better than a Hallelujah in your Sunday best, because you are sharing yourself with Him just as you are.

“Overnight” is the duet with her daughter, Sarah, and is a very intuitive song about the fact that, if everything happened overnight, you would never learn to appreciate the process. You would never know the faith it takes for good things to happen nor would you appreciate what you have earned. If we really thought about this song we’d all realize that instant success or whatever we wish to have overnight would leave us shallow and unappreciative in the long run. It’s the challenge and the climb that is much more rewarding and this song is a remarkable melody reminding us.

“Somewhere Down the Road” is sung first softly by Amy, then with power as she speaks of walking “down the road” with Jesus. She can only imagine being surrounded by forgiveness and wonders about imagining creation and all broken lives resurrected. This is a powerful Christian song painting wonderful and glorious visions of the life after with the Almighty – “Somewhere Down the Road”. This one gave me the chill-bumps – it is a beautiful song.

With this new CD, Amy reaches out and touches the heart of the listener. She captures the essence of woman flawlessly. This is one CD that needs to be in your collection – period.

You can follow Amy at www.amygrant.com, www.myspace.com/amygrant, www.twitter.amygrant and her music is available on Amazon, iTunes and various other electronic media for download.

CalamityAnnie1 – CMTT Music Contributor
www.myspace.com/calamityannie1 and www.twitter.com/calamityannie1