Amy Grant - My Father's Eyes - Album 6 of 10

Album Title: My Father's Eyes
Artist: Amy Grant

Album 6 of 10 in the 10 Album Challenge

Thoughts

In the fall of 1980, I met Sherry.

And the rest is history.

OK, that's not enough of an explanation.  Some exposition.

Very, very soon after we met, Sherry and I started spending most of our time together. And that meant spending time listening to music.

Sherry had been introduced to Amy Grant's music essentially as soon as it became available.  Amy Grant's introductory, self-titled album came out in 1977.  By the time we met, My Father's Eyes was part of Sherry's collection.  We listened to these two albums very frequently.  And, since I hadn't heard of Amy, for a while I could not really have told you which album had which songs.  In fact, Never Alone came out in 1980, and I'm sure Sherry had it very soon after, so those three albums were probably one big collection in my mind.

Until 1991's Heart in Motion, her albums were entirely Christian music, and she defined the genre for at least a decade.   But that's not what made her influential to my music tastes.

Amy Grant, the artist, is our age. Her early work (she writes a significant amount of her music) was "young" -- it sounded like a person of our age experiencing a young faith.  As she got older, her songs reflected a more nuanced, human, experience faith journey.

In my personal history, my faith was "education-based" before I got to college.  I went to church when my parents did, but I didn't ask to go, or look forward to going. I did the Sunday School thing sometimes, but not super often.  When it was time, I went through Confirmation classes mixed in with a group of kids who did NOT want to be there.  There was another group of kids who were taught together -- they were the popular kids, the "good kids" who all knew each other from growing up in the church.  But the entire group of kids was too large for one class, so we got separated, and the group I ended up with were the "rough" kids. It was not fun, but I was a good student, so I was determined to do well, no matter the group of kids.  So I learned what I had to learn, wrote the essays, took the quizzes (all A's, of course) and did just fine on Questioning.  That was 8th grade maybe? Not sure.  But when it was done, I was done with church (except when I had to go.)

I did have a faith lifeline in the sacred music I sang in choir, but other than that, my Christianity was just dormant.

Until I met Sherry.  Her faith was a big part of who she was.  And among other things, she listened to Amy Grant music.  Amy Grant's music was the soundtrack to my faith growth, coinciding with Sherry's influence, our discussions, Bible study, the religion courses I took at Luther, participation in choir and so on.

I've listened to Christian music ever since.  Not exclusively, clearly.  But Amy Grant and Michael W Smith are frequently in my listening list.  When I get melancholy, Amy Grant's music is one of the most frequent cures.  When I get joyful, or have done some learning -- particularly in philosophy or religion -- I want to hear her music.

So, I had to select an Amy Grant album.  Why did I select My Father's Eyes? First, it was among that group of two or three which started it all.  Next, because it had three of the most touching tracks: "My Father's Eyes," "O Sacred Head" and (my favorite) "There Will Never Be Another."

And now that I've written this, I think I'll go listen to Age to Age.