Today was a good day for interviews. I spoke to Nichole Nordeman this morning and Amy Grant this afternoon. Both spoke about their upcoming projects that release in May. Amy’s is finished and Nichole’s is almost there.
When I was a teenager, Amy’s Unguarded was the first Christian tape I ever bought. My stereo was filled with the current pop music and when “Find A Way” hit mainstream radio, I thought “if that’s good enough for Star 94, it’s good enough for my tape player.” Thus, my introduction to Christian music was born.
The interesting thing is that I started my introduction in reverse as well. The production was such an excuse not to delve into Christian music but once I started listening, production wasn’t such a factor. I loved the early stuff and enjoyed listening to old Petra tapes, even though they weren’t current and hip.
I found that contemporary Christian music was scratching an itch I didn’t know I had. It was speaking in a spiritual sense to so many of the daily struggles I had as a young Christian. It missed the mark sometimes, but it hit it more than it missed it. So my life became defined by this music through Amy Grant, Petra, Michael W. Smith, Allies, BeBe and CeCe Winans, Tim Miner, Russ Taff, Carman, etc.
At one time, when I was so surrounded and immersed with Christian music, I borrowed a tape from a friend of a best-selling secular artist that everyone was listening to. I liked what I had heard of the songs and listened for a little while and then stopped and considered the fact that it wasn’t offering me, it wasn’t feeding into me what I had been receiving with the others. On a production level, it was awesome but it was missing an element that I’d come to appreciate.
Those early listening days grew into my current appreciation with all of the bands and artists I currently have the opportunity to speak to and document, including Nichole, who continually writes songs to speak to me right where I am spiritually.
Amy and Nichole are both such incredible singers and songwriters that are articulate in their conversation as well as their music. Christian music is blessed to have them and I was blessed today to get their phone calls.
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