Throughout her career, Amy Grant has seamlessly navigated between Contemporary Christian and pop music. The wildly successful singer-songwriter has done so once again with the release of her latest album, “Be Still and Know ... Hymns and Faith.”
Grant’s third collection of hymnals is the poles apart follow-up to “In Motion,” a set of dance remixes of her greatest hits.
“It’s all part of life,” Grant said of her sometimes-divergent musical proclivities. “With ‘In Motion’ I wanted to make a fun, outlandish album to be enjoyed with lots of people together. After that I thought I would love to make a record that feels like having a conversation with one person.”
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Grant will perform one or two songs from “Be Still and Know” and her many Contemporary Christian and pop hits on Friday in Morristown. In addition to traditional hymns like “Rock of Ages” and “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” the disc includes two new numbers, “Be Still and Know” and “Power in the Blood.”
She said “Be Still and Know” is about the concept of stillness, a spiritual practice in which people reflect on life and faith and gain new insights by making time and space to block out the hectic pace of everyday life. For instance, yoga, sitting in a meadow or finding solitude on a busy street, are all considered forms of stillness.
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“We have so many options of how we can spend our time and energy, and so many distractions,” Grant said by phone from her Nashville home. “For the last year I’ve been a living study of stillness and what that means. It’s so important for the creative process but it’s also about being honest with yourself and feeling things you’ve never felt before.”
Grant said recording hymns is natural and special — she has been singing songs of praise all her life. “In some ways the music we are most inundated with in childhood will always feel like the wallpaper of your life,” Grant said. There’s such a comfort there that I always circle back around to it.”
She said hymns differ from other types of praise songs in their interactive nature. “Most hymns are meant to be sung as a way of speaking truth and good news and bearing witness to each other,” Grant said. “When I was in church as a child singing hymns it felt like sun coming in through a window.”
While Grant’s exquisite vocals are front and center on “Be Still and Know,” which was released in April, it is not an a cappella album. Songs such as “Jesus Take All of Me” are buoyed by moving string and piano arrangements. Grant duets with her husband, country star Vince Gill, on “Rock of Ages,” while rising country star Eric Paslay and Sheryl Crow join her on the former’s “Deep as it Is Wide,” the album’s standout track.
A Nashville native, Grant released her self-titled debut in 1977 while a senior in high school. Sophomore effort “My Father’s Eyes” followed in 1979, the first of eight consecutive No. 1 records on the Christian albums chart. Her 1982 album, “Age to Age,” included the No. 1 Christian chart single, “El Shaddai,” which is reprised on “Be Still and Know.” She soon was given the moniker, Queen of Christian Pop.
Grant started to cross over to mainstream pop on 1985’s “Unguarded,” which included several non-secular songs and charted at No. 35 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. Her 1991 effort, “Heart in Motion” veered more toward pop and hit No. 10 on the Billboard charts.
Grant continued mixing pop music with Christian lyrics throughout the Nineties. In the 2000s, she returned toward Contemporary Christian with the hymn collections, “Legacy” (2002) and “Rock of Ages” (2005). Overall, Grant has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.
She said a recent experience with her father underscored the power of hymns. “My dad is very old now, he has dementia and has lost all of his communication skills,” Grant said.
“I visited him and he’s just staring straight ahead. I’m talking to him but there’s zero acknowledgement that I’m there. I put my hand in his and started singing old hymns. All of the sudden after the fourth song he turned to me and said, ‘I love you.’ “
WHO: Amy Grant.
WHAT: Contemporary Christian and pop.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday.
WHERE: Mayo Performing Arts Center, 100 South St., Morristown; 973-539-8008 or mayoarts.org.
HOW MUCH: $49 to $79.
MORE INFO: amygrant.com.
