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Five times Gospel Winner of Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year Natalie Grant is known for her pop hits from Christian Airplay, including “King of the World” and “Held,” but this powerhouse singer vividly remembers being four years old, tears streaming down her face, listening to the gospel sounds of Mahalia Jackson.
“Listening to him sing, it made me feel so deeply,” Grant says. Billboard. “I have always been very influenced by gospel music. Gospel artists sing with everything they have.
On his new album, Seasons, out Friday (October 6), nine-time Grammy nominee Grant pays tribute to – and collaborates with – many of gospel music’s biggest stars, as well as pop and country music luminaries, covering songs that served as musical cornerstones in his own life. . CeCe Winans, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Mary Mary, Jekalyn Carr, Jonathan McReynolds, Cory Asbury, CAIN and Country Music Hall of Fame member Dolly Parton all join the new project.
Grant is quick to note that unlike some cover records, this isn’t trite – these are the songs she’s relied on through heartbreaks, triumphs, battles with thyroid cancer and l anxiety, and more.
“Sometimes you hear the word ‘cover record’ and it has this connotation of ‘Oh, it’s a filler record between the later original records and what follows,'” Grant says. “But there’s no filling record with that – that’s my lifetime record.”
Gospel music icon Winans sings with Grant on a version of the 1972 Andraé Crouch-written and recorded classic “My Tribute (To God Be the Glory).”
“Andraé left his mark on Christian and gospel music forever and his legacy is everlasting,” says Grant. “CeCe Winans has been my hero since I first heard her when I was 11 years old. I went to BeBe and CeCe Winans’ “Heaven” tour. CeCe has influenced me so much, not just her music, but her – she is one of the most beautiful people you’ll ever meet, inside and out. So hearing us respond to the verses on that song, it was just a surreal moment for me. She didn’t have to be a part of it, but she chose to be, and it shows once again how wonderful she is.
Grant teams up with sisterly duo Mary Mary on an updated version of their 2000 hit “Shackles (Praise You),” which reached No. 28 on the chart. Billboard Hot 100.
“It was one of those songs that I remember breaking all barriers – it didn’t matter if you listened to gospel, pop, CCM – everyone loved that song. They’ve never done the song again in 20 years – why would they choose to do it again with an extra person? This shows how amazing they are. We had so much fun singing this and living our best lives.
The album includes the Simon & Garfunkel standard “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with Cobbs Leonard, the Sandi Patty classic “Another Time, Another Place” (which Grant performs with McReynolds) and a version of LeAnn Rimes’ 2000 hit ” I Need You.” “, which marks another full-circle moment as Grant sang the original demo of the song before it reached Rimes.
Grant makes a connection with another country on the project, inviting Parton to join her in covering a Whitney Houston classic — no, not the Parton-penned “I Will Always Love You,” but rather Houston’s version of “Step by Step” by Annie Lennox, which was included on the Houston film’s soundtrack The pastor’s wife.
“This song is so special to me,” Grant says, remembering the mid-1990s, when she worked in an office for Medicare in Nashville while pursuing her music studies. “I would blast this song while driving my Volkswagen Golf to work. I wanted to make music but I had to do what it took to pay the bills.
The recording follows Parton and Grant sharing the stage earlier this year at Parton’s Dollywood theme park, where they sang the anthem “Just a Little Walk With Jesus.”
Although Parton initially turned down the opportunity to record “Step By Step” due to scheduling conflicts while working on her album. Rock starGrant says that a few weeks later, she received a personal letter from Parton — on hot pink Dolly Parton letterhead — asking if she could sing on the song again.
“It was just a really unforgettable moment,” Grant says. ” Who do this ? Dolly Parton does this. I was blown away that she gave up her time and talent to do this.
The album ends with a full-on family moment set to a version of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” on which Grant’s husband, producer-writer Bernie Herms, recorded Grant’s 83-year-old mother Gloria , singing in Grant’s childhood home. The track also features the couple’s daughters singing background vocals.
“I remember hearing this song and thinking, ‘If I could write words to my daughters, these would be them.’ »And having the whole family and their grandmother singing along is a gift.
The new album is steeped in the influence of gospel music, much like Grant’s self-titled 1999 debut, although after moving from her hometown of Seattle to Nashville, Grant recalls being disconcerted by the separation between white-dominated CCM and black-dominated gospel music. what the industries were like at the time (a topic also covered in the recent music magazine) documentary The music of Jesus), calling it an “eye-opening experience that some of these racial lines were very hard and fast lines.”
“I was hearing CCM radio programmers saying, ‘We don’t want to broadcast this; it sounds too Gospel”, or “Why does she sing like that? And why is there a Gospel choir there? I was just like, ‘I’m just singing,'” she says.
In recent years, Christian Airplay’s radio charts have featured more artists of color and more gospel influences, including Winans, Wells, Jon Reddick, Blessing Offor and Maverick City Music. “Now, about 20 years later, people are more open to diversity,” Grant says. “They say, ‘I would love to see a collaboration with a gospel artist or a Hispanic artist.’ All of a sudden, radio and the industry are looking for these moments. But honestly, we still have a long way to go.
Conversely, Grant says she’s seen her collaborations with Winans and Cobbs Leonard included in gospel-only playlists on Apple Music and Spotify, and in August, she honored Winans with a performance at the Stellar Awards on BET.
“It was a dream come true for me. But even the fact that they invited me when they didn’t have to. We didn’t have any songs on the Gospel charts at the time – or any songs released yet. But they welcomed me with open arms and I was very moved.
In addition to dominating the GMA Dove Awards’ Gospel and Urban Music categories, black artists have scored wins in the GMA Dove Awards’ best overall categories over the decades, even though radio has always seemed divided. Winners include Larnelle Harris (male vocalist), Nicole C. Mullen (songwriter of the year and song of the year for “Redeemer”), BeBe and CeCe Winans (new artist and group of the year), Wells (New Artist of the Year/Contemporary Christian Artist of the Year) and Take 6 (Group of the Year, New Artist of the Year). In recent years, Lecrae and CeCe Winans made history on the GMA Dove Awards stage; in 2015, Lecrae became the first purely hip-hop artist to win the coveted Entertainer of the Year title, while in 2022, Winans made history as the first Black solo artist to win the title of artist of the year.
Grant salutes the work Gospel Music Association President Jackie Patillo has done since he took over the organization in 2010 to make GMA Dove Awards performances more reflective of the breadth of sounds and styles Christian music.
“Jackie has worked so hard to blur those boundaries and drive inclusion and you see it when you watch the Dove Awards now, you can see those years of investment paying off,” Grant said. “We still have a way to go, but we are years ahead of where we were and I’m grateful to be able to support people in this progress.”
Earlier this year, Grant was part of a group of talented women who led the all-female It’s Time worship tour alongside Cobbs Leonard, Naomi Raine and Taya, delivering a soulful mix of CCM and Gospel hits, as well as classic hymns. Grant hopes these moments are just the beginning of lasting change.
“I think you’ll see a lot more tours coming together – you’ll see worship with hip-hop, CCM with Gospel. I think you’ll see a lot of this in the near future.