In Nashville, Tennessee, Vince Gill and Amy Grant are nearly as synonymous with Christmas as red suits and reindeer.
In September, the couple released When I Think Of Christmas, their first joint Christmas album. The singers’ popular Ryman Auditorium holiday residency prompted them to create the album, bringing everyone’s favorite Christmas carols to life. Their Christmas at the Ryman series of shows runs November 29—December 21. The couple marked over 100 headlining shows at the historic venue last year, the first co-headliners to achieve the milestone. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
The 11-song album is home to holiday staples, including “The Christmas Song,” “Winter Wonderland,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “Tennessee Christmas,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “O Holy Night,” and more. In addition, Grant’s new song “When I Think Of Christmas” and the couple’s new duet “‘Til The Season Comes Round Again” are also part of the project.
While Grant and Gill sing “‘Til The Season Comes Round Again” together, Grant was central to its creation. She helped Christian artist Matt Maher write the lyrics at his request.
“Matt said, ‘Hey, would you come? I’m working on a Christmas record. Will you come listen?” Grant said. “He’s a great writer … and he said, ‘I want your input.’”
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Grant listened to “‘Til The Season Comes Round Again” and told him he had shot himself in the foot because the song’s second verse was so strong. He was confused by the statement and explained that he needed to level up the rest of the song to match the verse.
Mahr asked her if she would work on the lyrics. Then, he recorded it.
Amy Grant Wrote Lyrics for “‘Til The Season Comes Round Again”
“He did a wonderful big production of that song,” she said. “The great thing about music is it’s a shared experience, but it’s also very private and personal. A song can have two completely different lives. One is the big rah, everybody’s in it together. I always go, ‘How would this sound if I were just singing for an audience of one?’”
When Grant and Gill recorded “‘Til The Season Comes Round Again,” they took the song a more sentimental route.
“I get pitched Christmas songs all the time,” she said. “I’m sort of embarrassed that I’ve made four Christmas records already, but this compilation is the fifth. That song that Matt wrote, it’s special.”
The song is one of many Grant and Gill will sing at the Ryman, a series of shows that has become a Christmas tradition for many of the couple’s fans. However, Grant said attending isn’t something her children and their families always make a holiday habit. They do share other Christmas traditions – when there’s time.
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“That’s the hardest working time (of year),” Grant said. “We try to enjoy a Christmas movie. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t. We always do gingerbread houses. The family I was born into and the family that we have, everybody loves being creative, making things with our hands, all kinds of stuff.”
When it comes to gift-giving, they draw names.
“Everybody’s so creative with what they give,” she said. “Christmas morning, there’s a lot of, ‘Okay, here’s the gift from sibling to sibling or brother-in-law.’”
Photo by Robby Klein
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