Ease into the Christmas season with the first night of Amy Grant and Vince Gill’s annual Christmas at the Ryman residency, which runs through Dec. 22. Grant is a crossover singer who made the transition from Christian artist to pop star — her 1991 full-length Heart in Motion contains the amazing track “Galileo,” which reminds me of an outtake from The Chills’ 1990 Submarine Bells, sort of. Of course, I prefer Grant’s pop material, and note that famed rock critic Chuck Eddy once wrote that “Galileo” praised a “defrocked convicted heretic astronomer.” This year, Grant released Tennessee Christmas, a low-key affair featuring acoustic guitars and relaxed vocals. At press time, the record sits at No. 3 on Billboard’s Holiday Albums chart, despite LifeWay Christian Resources’ decision not to stock an album that isn’t “Christian enough,” according to an op-ed in The Washington Post by Grant’s manager Jennifer Cooke. Grant’s husband, country singer and multi-instrumentalist Vince Gill, duets with her on a cover of Frank Loesser’s “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” on the album, and he joins her at the Ryman to perform Christmas standards and contemporary holiday material. EDD HURT
Amy Grant and Vince Gill Christmas at the Ryman
