Christmas with Amy Grant and Vince Gill

Grammy Award-winning husband and wife perform here Friday

t was her first full day back home after a 20-state concert tour, but Amy Grant was still very much in motion.

“I’m throwing some food in the oven real fast,” she said at the beginning of a recent 9 a.m. telephone interview from her Nashville home. “I’m taking breakfast to my mom and dad.”

Grant has a somewhat deep, unaffected down home sort of Southern voice that is instantly appealing. She’s also obviously smart, but you feel at home with her right away, notwithstanding the fact that she’s been one of the most successful female singer-songwriters over the course of the last 15 to 20 years.


Her first breakthrough came as a contemporary Christian singer-songwriter, and then she was launched into the mainstream big time when her 1991 album “Heart In Motion” became a best-seller and the single “Baby Baby” (which includes the line “Ever since the time you put my heart in motion”) became a number one pop hit.

Marriage in 2000 to country star Vince Gill (albeit a tad controversial at the time in some Christian circles, since both had just exited previous marriages) could be said to have extended musical influences even further. Both are Grammy Award winners. In any event, the husband-wife team has taken to doing an annual Christmas tour, so Grant’s respite from touring was going to be a brief one.

Last Thursday, the “Christmas With Amy & Vince” tour kicked off in Manchester, N.H., and it comes to the DCU Center in Worcester with a concert beginning at 7:30 p.m. Friday. This isn’t Grant’s first visit to Worcester or the DCU Center.

“I’ve been there many times over the years. It’s great to be coming back,” she said.

The tour will end Dec. 23 back home in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium.

The couple will be backed by a 12-piece band that features a horn section and two harmony singers, one of whom is Gill’s daughter from a previous marriage, Jenny.

Meanwhile, Grant, 48, has released several popular Christmas albums.

The show will include holiday classics, as well as some original holiday tunes written by Grant and Gill.

“Christmas is not about reinventing the wheel,” Grant said. “It’s about singing, but singing with great arrangements. Maybe this show is unique in that we have some original Christmas music, but it’s music that’s been out for some time.”

A lot of preparation has gone into this production, Grant added. “Sometimes, when you do the most work you get the most out of it. It’s like anything, if you teach a class there’s something about the anticipation, the preparation. The person who does the most preparation gets the most out of it.”

For a Christmas show, “People are looking for an ‘Aha!’ moment. This was the feeling I was looking for. We work so hard to put on a musically satisfying evening. If you can just get in you’ll be glad you did it because we do all the work — the set design, lighting, arrangements that have to be written. Although for all the preparation there’s a lot of spontaneity because of his (Gill’s) musicianship.”

Does the show get Grant in the Christmas spirit?

“Absolutely. I think it’s just nice to have. There’s something about sharing a stage at Christmas time.”

Grant is originally from Augusta, Ga., and has said she was one of a group of “hippie Christians” who began writing songs at their church.

Her songs soon got attention, and Grant’s first album, “Amy Grant,” came out when she was still a teenager.

“The only reason I ended up on stage is because I wrote songs. I love song writing,” she said.

Auditioning for a recording contract, “The response from the record company was, ‘She’s not that good, but she’s amazingly sincere.’ They sent me a contract. I would not have survived ‘American Idol.’ ”

Grant was perhaps only half joking.

“I learned my craft in the process of doing music,” she said.

Her album “Age to Age” became the first “contemporary Christian” music album to be certified platinum. More recent albums have shown gospel and bluegrass interests.

Contemporary Christian … pop … gospel … Christmas music … country …

What does Grant think of all these labels?

“They all sound boring to me,” she said candidly and decisively. Then she told an anecdote.

“I was seated on a plane next to a woman flying to Minneapolis … She asked me, ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘I’m a songwriter.’ ”

The woman didn’t know who Amy Grant was. Grant was flying to Minneapolis to give a concert. “As it turned out, I invited her to the show. She had no preconceived idea.”

Afterward, Grant talked to her again. “She said, ‘This is so much fun.’ And that’s the way I like it. All of us tend to be very dismissive about something when we think we know what it is.”

Grant was still in the kitchen, and coffee was ready. “This is perfect,” she said after taking a sip.

Was “Heart in Motion” her biggest break?

“It’s the biggest-selling record I’ve ever done. I can’t say I feel it’s the best songwriting,” Grant said, again with typical honesty. “It was a blast to do. But from a songwriting perspective, pop songs are mostly about the production. For a songwriter the most satisfying songs are the ones that really take you somewhere. But that record — I feel it exposed me to a much broader audience. It was sort of exciting. Sort of exhausting, too.”

After the Christmas tour, Grant will probably have some time to relax, but again not for long. She said she’s heading to the recording studio. Indeed, she feels her best songwriting is still ahead of her.

But here’s the secret when it comes to being in perpetual motion as far as music is concerned:

It’s fun.

“You sure can lift your emotional level if you expose yourself to music,” Grant said. “With any task, if I’ll put music on, suddenly you’ve got a jump in your step.

“Yesterday my daughter and I were cleaning out our cars in the driveway. She was listening to music. She was just bounding around.” Soon Grant was, too.

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