Natalie Grant on Her New Christmas Album
Maina Mwaura
Audio By Carbonatix
By Maina Mwaura, Crosswalk.com
For nine-time Grammy nominated contemporary Christian artist Natalie Grant, this Christmas is a homecoming – and in more ways than one.
For the past 20 years – since the celebrated singer-songwriter, author, and philanthropist released her first Christmas album, 2005’s Believe (all while promoting her top-charting breakthrough album Awaken) – her desire to release a second Christmas album has only grown stronger. When Grant completed her multi-album record deal last year, she knew “the very first thing I was going to do was make a new Christmas record.”
She did just that with Christmas, out now. For Grant, doing so was a return to her roots – and some of her warmest childhood memories. Christmas was always particularly special, as her family would gather around the piano to sing carols together. “And all these years later, we still gather around the piano every Christmas Eve,” she says with a nostalgic smile. And it is, even for my own kids, such a core memory of Christmas.”
That sense of home and togetherness – and the peace it brings – echoes Christmas, bringing a sense of calm comfort and festive familiarity to beloved Christmas classics, plus two new originals. For “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Grant looked to a future memory she can’t wait to create, her two eldest daughters returning home from their first year away at college. “I had just sobbed my eyes out at an assembly,” recalls Grant of the day she recorded her rendition of the classic. “There's all this emotion and I'm going into the studio, but it ended up being a moment of therapy for me. I could have a respite from the craziness, and go, ‘Yes, they're going to college, but they'll come back at Christmas.’”
In a sit-down interview with Crosswalk, Grant lays her heart out on why she loves Christmas and singing about Jesus.
Crosswalk: Why did it take 20 years to release another Christmas album?
Natalie Grant: Anybody who knows me knows I'm a Christmas queen. I love Christmas music, I always tell artists if you do it right and, and record don't record a trendy Christmas record, record a classic Christmas record, and you can build. I've built a brand tour, everything off of a 20-year-old Christmas record. I have wanted to make another one for a very long time. I have had a wonderful partnership with Curb Records. I had a 23-year-old record deal with them. That's very long in music industry terms. I signed that deal back in 2001 and I completed the deal. I stayed and fulfilled my commitment, and they've been a wonderful team that did some wonderful things for me, but one of the things in my recording contract is that I had a certain number of records I had to do, and when I do a Christmas record, it didn't count. I did that Christmas record in 2005 and realized I just gave them a record, but it didn't count towards my commitment. The day that I finished the deal, was the day that I began working on a new Christmas record.
CW: You recently signed with Capital Record, what did they think of the Christmas record idea, when you brought it to them?
NG: It has just been a beautiful, incredible partnership with people that I've known a long time. They were like, your very first thing is a Christmas record. I wouldn't have signed unless it was a Christmas record.
CW: What do you enjoy about Christmas music?
NG: There's a classic nostalgia, many core memories for my attached to Christmas songs. I come from a big family. I'm the youngest of five kids. All of my family members are very musical, none of them are in professional music like me. My brother, my musical hero, was a worship pastor, unbelievable piano player. All of my family at Christmas, or Christmas Eve, gather around the piano and we have songs that we sing. We all have our parts. I'm going to be on Alto, my, sister's going to be on soprano, my brother's going to be on tenor. Everybody sings, even the grandkids have to gather around and now the great grandkids gather around. Christmas songs for me, are just attached to core memories with my family.
CW: What Christmas memory do you have growing up?
NG: When I was growing up, my parents still live in the same house that I grew up in. They moved into that house when I was two years old. My dad's about to turn 90. My mom's 85. They still live in the same house, same neighborhood. Many of the neighbors have passed on, but some of them are still there. But growing up, we caroled around the neighborhood, and it became a tradition where people would bake the cookies and wait for us to knock on the door. Christmas for me is a real core part of my upbringing. I love Christmas music and I was just raised with that.
CW: Where does your love of Christian music come from?
NG: I have been a Christian and gospel music lover fan my whole life. I think that even sometimes, this is probably a whole other interview we could do.
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Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Kevin C. Cox/Staff
MAINA MWAURA is a freelance writer and journalist who has interviewed over 800 influential leaders, including two US Presidents, three Vice-Presidents, and a variety of others. Maina, is also the author of the Influential Mentor, How the life and legacy of Howard Hendricks Equipped and Inspired a Generation of Leaders. Maina and his family reside in the Kennesaw, Georgia area.
