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Christmas --
Pop Music Music to remind us of mystery
By ROBIN TAYLOR
I am a pushover for Christmas music.
I confess that it makes up a good portion of my CD collection. Old songs
mostly, but new ones, too. Im always happy when I hear it piped over the
grocery store speakers, even if its barely past Halloween.
While much of Christian music is fluffy, sunshiny and gives me a
headache, Christmas songs transcend all that. They always remind me of mystery,
of holiness, of a miracle that ripped through time and changed the world
forever.
One of my favorite Christmas artists is Amy Grant. A
Christmas Album, her first seasonal offering, was released in 1983 while
I was in high school. That cassette is still in my car today. Her version of
Angels We Have Heard on High never fails to move me. Grants
second Christmas album, Home for Christmas, followed in 1992 and
contained the marvelous My Grown-Up Christmas List.
She has just released her third Christmas album, A Christmas
to Remember. It peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Christmas albums
chart and is currently at No. 5, behind powerhouses Garth Brooks and Kenny G.
It has also fared well on the mainstream Billboard album chart, rising
so far to No. 36.
This success is nothing new for Grant, 39, whose Christian music
career began more than 20 years ago. She was the first Christian artist to have
been awarded a Platinum Album Certification (for sales of over 1 million
units), has won multiple Grammies, sold millions of albums and gained fans in
both the Christian and secular music markets. The Christian press has labeled
her the heroine of the genre, and Christian musics own
Wizard of Oz. She recently made her acting debut in a CBS movie special
and earlier this month hosted her own Christmas show with guests Tony Bennett
and CeCe Winans, also on CBS. The network is reportedly excited about its
growing relationship with Grant because she is family friendly yet hip
and current.
Through all this, Grant has remained a Christian artist in the
highest sense of the word. She doesnt mention Jesus in every song
anymore; she doesnt have to. Her faith is the foundation of her life, and
it flows through her music, making it relevant and nurturing for all sorts of
people, even non-Christian types.
This latest Christmas album has a pleasing mix of instrumentals,
old favorites and contemporary songs that lead the listener to worship. In
other words, it is classic Amy Grant. One of the most moving songs on the
album, Welcome to Our World, greets the newborn Jesus and asks for
healing for our troubled, hungry hearts. Tears are falling/Hearts are
breaking/How we need to hear from God/Youve been promised/Weve been
waiting/Welcome, Holy Child, she sings. This is what we need, after all.
Someone to bring
peace into our violence and heal us,
someone not afraid to wrap our injured flesh around [him], breathe our
air and walk our sod. Jesus made himself at home here, the Word who
broke heavens silence.
The albums two instrumentals are lovely. One,
Gabriels Oboe, has haunted me since I first heard it in the
movie The Mission. The other, Highland Cathedral,
features pipes and drums in a song that Grant says is mournful and
beautiful
the kind of thing that moves your soul. Another touching
album cut is the traditional Silent Night nobody out-sings
Grant on hymns.
The album is not perfect. Ive never been a big fan of
Jingle Bell Rock, and the perky Mister Santa is just
annoying. Grant says that the silliness and goofiness of Christmas is all
part of the magic, but this tune, a redo of the classic Mr.
Sandman moves from fun to outright materialism. Mister Santa, bring
us a lot, is the gist of it. As if most of us around here dont have
too much already. Thankfully, its possible to program my computer to skip
this song whenever it cycles through on the CD. If I never heard it again, that
would be fine with me.
Wisely, Grant doesnt end her album here. Instead, the
collections final song is one that I could listen to again and again.
Agnus Dei, written by Christian music superstar Michael W. Smith,
is not a typical Christmas song. No mention of Jesus birth, choirs of
angels or of Christmas at all. Alleluia, alleluia/For our Lord God
Almighty reigns
Holy, holy/Are you Lord God Almighty/Worthy is the
lamb/Worthy is the lamb
Amen. Its focus is unmistakable: God is
holy. The songs strength lies in its simplicity, its power in its
clarity.
I have long admired Grant, ever since I bought her Age to
Age album and discovered the beautiful song El Shaddai. At
the low point of my high school inferiority, I would have gladly traded lives
with her. I loved her long, curly hair, stylish clothes and the fact that she
married the love of her life, Christian musician Gary Chapman, so young. I was
jealous that young men in church youth groups around the country mourned at the
news of the Grant wedding. I doubted then that I would ever find anyone to
marry me.
Today, if I didnt know better, I still might think about
switching places. The pictures on her latest albums CD jacket show a
glowing, joyful life. Theres Amy, trim as ever, laughing with a string of
tangled Christmas lights on her lap. Amy kissing a snowman. Amy walking with a
lantern through a beautiful snowy field on a perfect winters day. You
cant tell from the pictures that its cold there and that she might
be tired. You forget that she had professionals help her with her hair and
makeup, that she probably doesnt roll out of bed looking so lovely.
In fact, Grants had a tough year. She divorced Chapman after
nearly 17 years of marriage, amid persistent tabloid rumors of an affair with
country star Vince Gill. She insists in a recent interview with Contemporary
Christian Music magazine, though, that she and Gill were just friends
during Grants marriage. They are dating now. Gill sings on A
Christmas to Remember, and she thanks him in the album liner notes for
both his sweet voice and companionship.
It would be easy to judge Grant for this relationship that
flowered so soon after her divorce. Mostly, though, it is a reminder that
nobody on this planet gets to have a storybook life, in spite of what the album
liner photographs imply. In the interview, Grant talked of the years of marital
counseling, the struggles and difficult times. For people that have
[personally] known and loved us a long time, the divorce was not a surprise.
None of this was taken lightly. It was years in the making. She
continued, I know why God hates divorce. Because it rips you from stem to
stem
This [divorce] has been just unbelievably humbling. But it has been
healing. It makes me incredibly thankful that God is a God of second
chances.
This perspective on God is what keeps me coming back to
Grants Christmas albums. They remind me, year round, that Jesus walked
among us. That he heals us today in the real world, the one where marriages
fall apart, and we hurt each other, and we think so little of ourselves that
wed consider trading lives with someone else. In this place, this very
place, Jesus appears. He takes us as we are and loves us.
That is the miracle of the Christmas season, the miracle of the
Incarnation. So let the Christmas carols play, today and always, songs that
speak the truth of Emmanuel, God with us. We need his hands, his heart. We need
him. Even so, even now.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Robin Taylor writes from Salt Lake City.
National Catholic Reporter, December 24,
1999
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