Better Than A Hallelujah

Amy Grant

March 4, 2010

Smothers Theatre -- Pepperdine University

Malibu, CA

It's been a long time since I saw Amy Grant in concert. It must have been in the late 80s or early 90s, as I had been listening to her music at that time, thanks to my college roommate, Jen. I sang Amy's song "Say Once More" at Jen's wedding, so we have a special connection there. Jen was supposed to attend with me, but a family emergency arose, and she couldn't make it. Bummer! Luckily, my friend Lori was available to take her place, and we made our way to Malibu.

Amy looks great! She sounds great, too. The Smothers Theatre is such a nice venue for the sound that she's currently putting forth. When I saw her in concert before, she had a HUGE following, and we saw her at a sold-out concert at the Pond in Anaheim. We were in seats that required binoculars in order to see her at her keyboard. But at the Smothers, we were about 6 rows back. Not too shabby! She also never played the keyboard, but played her acoustic guitar instead. Really nice and intimate.

She did a few of her old songs, but it was mostly the secular stuff, like "Baby, Baby". She also did a few new songs from her new CD, "Somewhere Down the Road", including "Better Than A Hallelujah". I'm more familiar with her Christian songs, so I was really happy to hear some of her old songs, like "El Shaddai", which is Lori's favorite. If she had sung "Thy Word", I would have been beaming, since that's my favorite, but I was still happy.

She even did some of her real old school stuff, which I didn't know, but her loyal fans were happy to hear them, as a few of them had made some requests earlier on the tour. They had been following her for 4 nights of shows in So Cal. Hmmm...I wonder what it's like to be such a huge fan of someone? ;) She was very grateful for those fans, and even called out the most vocal one in the crowd. That was cool.

The songs from her new CD sound like she's gone back to her acoustic roots, and they're lovely. I need to get that CD.

Welcome back, Amy! It's been way too long, and I hope you don't wait another 10 years until you share more new music with us.