Natalie talks about Relentless
Natalie Grant's latest album, "Relentless," lives up to its title with a full-bore production that wraps every full-throated vocal in big, dense, almost orchestral pop arrangements. So why is she confident she can pull that sound off live when the "Relentless" tour brings her to Mobile this weekend? Easy.
"Cause I have the best band in Christian music. I really do," she said. "They're amazing players. I'm very blessed."
"My goal for people to always say it was better than the record," she said. "We work very hard to make a very musically excellent show."
To say that Grant herself comes off as relentless in conversation might imply rudeness, which is not the case. But she's definitely got focus and abundant energy when it comes to her music.
No wonder she stepped up to the podium at last week's Gospel Music Association awards show to claim her third consecutive Dove Award for female vocalist of the year. Clearly, the run that began with her 2005 album "Awaken" which made her Christian music's top-selling adult contemporary female solo artist in that year and the next isn't over.
Grant spoke to the Press-Register before last week's Dove Awards show, but was well aware that it might be another big night for her.
"It's a huge honor that I'm nominated," she said at the time. "Every time I hear that I'm nominated for something, and I hear the company that I'm with, I just think, what am I doing here?"
"My microphone used to be a hairbrush and the people used to be stuffed animals, and somehow it turned into a real mike and real people," she said, an anecdote she later repeated at the Doves. "I'm just so grateful that I get to wake up every day and do what I love and that people recognize it and think that I do a good job. It's a huge honor. It's going to be a fun night, and whatever way it goes is how it goes."
As for how Friday's show goes, one gets the sense that Grant is leaving much less to chance.
She's focusing mainly on new music, she said, though there will be room for a few of her previous hits. Songs from "Relentless" have been getting good responses from audiences, she said.
"From the new album, of course, 'In Better Hands' does, because it's the radio hit from the album, it's the song people know," she said. "The couple that I've been surprised by, we do a song called 'Perfect People' into another song called 'Our Hope Endures' and people really seem to be connecting with those messages. It's as if they take those songs and make them their own.
"It's neat for me to see because you hope and you pray that people will connect with the song, and to see it happening is really cool."
Grant said she'll also spend some time speaking about the Home Foundation, an organization she founded several years ago to raise awareness about human trafficking, particularly its effect on women and children.
"I speak about that every show I do," she said. "I've seen a little girl, with my own eyes, a girl in a cage. It's just things you never forget. And to know that it's happening in this country, in our neighborhoods one mile from my front door in Nashville, Tenn., they broke up a brothel with 15 girls under age 12, so it's happening everywhere."
Musically, she said, she hopes she presents a night of music that anyone can enjoy.
"I really believe the night is for people of all ages," she said. "I've got a big young following, and a large middle-aged following, and then they bring their grandparents and they love it, too."
But she hopes they get more than entertainment, she said.
"I really feel like the music is something people of all ages can love and connect with," she said. "We hope that people are entertained, that they love the music, that they have a great night.
"But most of all we pray that people have a connection point with God. That's what Christian music is about. What sets us apart is not necessarily the music but it's the message. And so my prayer is that the message is always very clear so that people can really truly have a spiritual connection."
Thanks to blog.al.com
