In early November, one of my fellow bassists in Philharmonia Northwest asked if I would be interested in joining the orchestra for Amy Grant's northwest tour 2017. I'm pretty sure I had heard of Amy Grant (although I may have been confusing her with Amy Winehouse) and I had the impression that she was a pop star of some kind. A quick wikipedia session told me that she is a Christian/pop crossover singer with six Grammy awards and numerous other honors. In other words, in Christian music circles, a superstar. She was touring with a couple of guys I had never heard of, Michael W. Smith, another Christian music star, and Jordan Smith a 24-year-old man with an incredibly high voice who made his name on The Voice television show (fun fact - Jordan Smith was recently designated a Kentucky Colonel due to his talent and fame).
It seemed to me that, although joining up would mean four long days of travel and playing, it would be an interesting experience and an opportunity to meet lots of local orchestral musicians. As a bonus, it is also a paid gig. So I accepted.
This tour is a major operation. In addition to the stars, there is a thoroughly professional band (two guitars, electric bass, two keyboards, drums), six backup singers, and a hardworking stage crew. Everyone seems to be based in Nashville and everyone I talked to was ever so friendly and helpful. For example, as most of us were clueless as to how to attach microphones to our basses, one of the stage crew members uncomplainingly did it for us FOUR TIMES in four days.
At the first performance, in Kennewick WA, one of the crew told me that, after the show, they work until 1:00AM taking down the stage and loading everything into trucks. Afterwards, they would ride buses all night (along with the rest of the entourage and the stars) to the next venue, in this case Abbotsford, BC, where the stage and props were set up by the time the orchestra arrived around 2:00PM the following afternoon. They work hard.
Each show was almost exactly the same. There were small variations in the patter between songs but that's about it. The song sequence was the following:
AMY GRANT and MICHAEL W. SMITH
CHRISTMAS SYMPHONY SHOW 2017 with Jordan Smith
David Hamilton – conductor Show order vers. 5 11/18/17
1. Joy to the World Overture (Huff) Orchestra
2. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year Artists entrance ---- MWS vocal Band/Orchestra
3. Sleigh Ride AMY (w/ BGVs) Band/Orchestra
4. Happy Holiday/ Holiday Season MICHAEL (w/ BVs) Band/Orchestra
5. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree AMY (w/ BGVs) Band
6. Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells MICHAEL (w/ BGVs /David Piano/”snowballs”) Band
7. Mr. Grinch JORDAN SMITH Band/Orchestra
8. Still Can’t Sleep AMY (w/ BGVs) Band
9. Grown Up Christmas List (with Compassion B-roll Video) AMY and JORDAN Band
10. Whitaker’s Wonder (Instrumental) MICHAEL Piano/Orchestra
11. I’ll Be Home For Christmas AMY Band/Orchestra
12. Tennessee Christmas AMY/ MICHAEL Band
13. Gloria MICHAEL (and AMY with BGVs) Band/Orchestra
COMPASSION VIDEO
----- INTERMISSION --------------
14. Million Lights (with Orch intro) MICHAEL (w/ BGVs) Band/Orchestra
15. That’s What Love Is For AMY (w/ BGVs) Band/Orchestra
16. Christmastime/ Love Has Come AMY/ MICHAEL (w/ BGVs) Band
17. To Be Together AMY (w/ BGVs) Band/Orchestra
18. Welcome To Our World (or Piano solo) MICHAEL Piano/ Vocal
19. Breath of Heaven AMY Band/Orchestra
20. All Is Well MICHAEL(piano) and JORDAN (w/ BGVs) Keys/Orchestra
21. Carols –Singalong (Audience with Michael /Amy/Jordan and BGVs). Piano/all voices
22. O Holy Night JORDAN (w/ BGVs) Keys/Orchestra
23. The Promise MICHAEL (w/ BGVs) Keys/Orchestra
24. O Little Town/ Emmanuel. AMY, MICHAEL and JORDAN (w/ BGVs). Band/Orchestra
------------------------------------------------- ENCORE--------------------------------------------
25. Friends AMY and MICHAEL (w/ BGVs) Band/Orchestra
26. Til the Season Comes Round Again Amy/Michael/ Jordan (w/ BGVs) Band/Orchestra
27. Most Wonderful Time of the Year -- Reprise (bar 65- end) - Playoff Band/Orchestra
That is a lot of music.
And aside from the music itself, there was a lot of talk, mostly about Amy's life, family, and faith but also about compassionate things people in the audience can do. Just before intermission there was a video about poor children in third world countries and afterwards, a call for people to sign up to donate to individual children. Fliers were offered throughout the crowd with, I believe, information on a particular child and a signup form to give a few dollars monthly for that child's health and education.
Just before we played "I'll be Home for Christmas," Amy talked about the song's 1940s origin during WW2 and asked all of the military veterans in the audience to stand up and receive applause, followed by their families and serving military members. Then she asked the entire audience to stand as we performed the song.
To my secular mind, all of this was unexceptionable and warm and fuzzy. Michael W. Smith, on the other hand, was more hard core Christian, although he didn't go as far as fire and brimstone. One of his songs, "Welcome to Our World," repeated the phrase "I believe in you" so many times that, it seemed to me, he was really trying to convince himself.
And then, in a class of his own, there was Jordan Smith. His voice is powerful, controlled, and preternaturally high, leading me to contemplate what a castrato must have sounded like in the good old days. He sings in the register of a soprano with the lung power and force of a big man and, yes, he is big. I have to admit that his renditions of "Mr. Grinch" and "O Holy Night" were a lot of fun.
As an example, here are Amy and Jordan in 2016 singing "My Grownup Christmas List" which we heard every night during this year's tour. And here is a longer clip, also from 2016, which includes orchestral accompaniment on several songs. This was my life for four days.
One of my favorite things was the onstage snowball fights. During "Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells," the gag was that Amy would throw a snowball (actually a soft ball of white fuzzy fabric) at Michael W. Smith as he sang. The orchestra did not play during this song and we were each issued two snowballs to hurl as we saw fit after her initial toss. We were asked to throw them in high arcs across the stage to make a nice effect for the audience. Of course, things deteriorated from there as Amy got onto the conductor's podium and started throwing them at the orchestra. At Friday's performance, I grabbed one off the floor and, as I straightened up, took one in the chops which I'm pretty sure came from Amy herself. I got my revenge on Sunday night when I nailed her in the back of the head with a rising fastball.
The crowd loved it all, as we could tell from the thunderous applause and shouts of "I love you Amy!" and in one case "I love you Jesus!" I looked around in confusion but he didn't seem to be in the house.
So. On to the tour.
Thursday, November 16: Toyota Center, Kennewick, WA
I arrived at Northgate in Seattle in time to load my bass into a van along with three other basses, a tuba, and some assorted no-account small instruments. Then, just after 9:00AM, we boarded the bus for the 3-4 hours long drive to Eastern Washington. By coincidence, I ended up seated next to a fellow bass player named William and we chatted amiably as we crossed the state. Various groups in which we had played, mutual musical acquaintances, professional life, basses we have played, bassists we have known, favorite bass bows, politics (we agree), religion or lack thereof (we agree)... we covered a lot of ground and the drive went quickly. We were given about 30 minutes for lunch in Ellensburg and arrived at the venue in Kennewick around 1:30PM.
Our first rehearsal started onstage at 2:00PM so we had to unload our instruments, get them onstage, and warm up quickly. For many of us, this was our first time reading through all the songs but, since the music is not very challenging, most of the time was spent on ensemble issues rather than getting our individual parts right.
Dinner was served at 5:30 (Mexican food from Qdoba) and, at the 6:30 call time, we went onstage for warmup. The performance began promptly at 7:00. The arena (actually it is a hockey rink) was not full but there must have been a few thousand people in attendance, which is probably the largest crowd I had ever played for at that point.
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| Onstage for our first rehearsal |
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| Some of the friendly stage crew members |
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| The Tri-Cities crowd gathers |
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| Local person does the pre-performance introduction |
Friday, November 17: Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre, Abbotsford, BC
After four or five hours of sleep, I made my way back to Northgate for our 10:00AM departure to Abbotsford, BC. I had a seat to myself until we stopped north of Arlington to pick up a few people who didn't want to spend hours in traffic to get to Northgate only to head back north again on the bus. A friendly young trumpet player named David took the seat next to me and we whiled away the time talking about his two trumpet degrees, his job as a general contractor, and life in general. We arrived at the border and made it through Canadian customs without incident. We then spent an inordinate amount of time on winding roads (is Canada against freeways?) eventually arriving in Abbotsford sometime around noon. The bus stopped at a shopping center for lunch and we all headed off to the various restaurants in the area. William and I chose an Asian noodle place and managed to eat within the 40 minutes we were allotted in order to get to the venue by 2:00PM.
Since the rehearsal was scheduled for 4:00, why the rush? I still don't know.
We were issued pasta for dinner and went onstage at 6:30 only to wait around until nearly 7:30 to start the show.
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| Amy Grant during rehearsal |
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| Onstage Christmas trees |
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| I had to carry my bass up and down these stairs! |
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| Lots of lights in the smoke-filled arena |
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| Minutes away from performance |
Those were two long days but the worst was over.
Saturday, November 18: Xfinity Arena, Everett, WA
Since this performance was close to home, I could sleep in and didn't have to go to Northgate, didn't have to ride the bus, and didn't have to linger after the concert. Paradise.
Xfinity Arena was completely unknown to me so when I went inside, I had no idea how to find anything. There was an employee near the front door who told me to go down the hall, take the elevator up one floor, and turn right. I obediently did as I was told and found myself looking down (way way down) at the stage. My steel trap mind told me "this can't be right" so I trusted myself to the kindness of strangers who pointed out that I perhaps should have gone one floor down instead of one floor up. Point taken. I think I came way too close to a Spinal Tap moment.
We had our now routine rehearsal at 4:00PM followed by dinner at 5:30PM (Mac and cheese, buns with no butter. What's with all the carbs?) The show went smoothly and I rushed out the door only to find that I was complete disoriented and didn't know which way to turn to get to the car. I took a guess which turned out to be correct and wheeled my bass upstream against the crowd flowing out of the concert. People passing by somehow recognized me as a musician (maybe it was the dark suit and the bass) and told me probably 10 times how great the performance was, how "magical" it was to have the orchestra there, thanking me for playing etc etc. After I got in the car and started home I was stopped at a red light while concertgoers crossed the street in front of me and a few people noticed that I was dressed as a musician (from OUTSIDE THE CAR!) and gave me a thumbs up! This is the most praise I have ever gotten for a concert and the music was dead easy. Understandable I guess, given that they are fans of Amy and company, but still... it seems weird.
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| I did not buy one |
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| The orchestra is not, in fact, pink. It's the lights. |
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| Two of my pink fellow bassists |
Sunday, November 19: MODA Center, Portland, OR
Once again, and for the last time, I drove to Northgate to get on the bus for a 10:00AM departure, this time for Portland. Again I sat with William and we continued our previous conversations concerning life, family, music, etc. We got to Portland and stopped at Lloyd Center in Portland for lunch. I ended up having pizza with David the trumpeter and Gerry who manages the orchestra for this tour. Gerry is a former professor at SPU, a former junior high school teacher and, as I was soon to learn, an enthusiastic trumpet player. I sat there without contributing much as the other two talked trumpets. I learned more on this subject in that half hour than I really need or want to know: best trumpet brands (Bach!), trumpet mouthpieces (there are different sizes!), and the finer points of trumpet embouchure including exercises to improve it. Did you know that the lower lip acts as a cushion while the upper lip does the vibrating? Neither did I. And I still don't care. I could have held forth on the best sorts of bow hair but, unlike these two, I decided this wasn't the right audience.
As before, we arrived at the venue and had a rehearsal at 4:00PM. The rehearsal was perfunctory since, at this point, we knew the music cold. Afterwards, Amy and the other stars hung around for a meet a greet and autograph session with the orchestra members. I didn't care enough about the two guys to make an effort to meet them but I waited in line to talk to Amy. We exchanged compliments and she thanked me for playing. She seems like a genuinely nice person.
For the last time we had dinner (grilled veggies and cookies this time) during which I talked to a young woman (a cellist) who for some reason decided to tell me that at age 32 she doesn't want to have children yet but hopes she still can at 35. I told her that we had a baby at that age and it worked out just fine. I guess I must be pretty non-threatening to talk to.
We played our last show to, I think, our largest crowd of the tour. As you can see in one of the pictures, the crowd extended all the way up to the rafters.
Afterwards, we got on the bus and headed home. There was a little trouble when we dropped some of our players at SouthCenter when the van with their instruments (and mine) didn't show up immediately. I still don't know whether they overshot the exit and had to come back or if they stopped for coffee somewhere. We had to waste about 15 minutes at 1:30 in the morning waiting for them. Much unhappiness ensued.
As I was driving home around 2:00AM, I realized that I was the only car on the 520 bridge in either direction! Another first for me on this tour. I decided to count all of the moving cars on the road between there and home and ended up with 5. Now I know the best time to drive to Seattle!
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| The stage in Portland |
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| After the last rehearsal, we were invited to meet the stars. |
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| Yup, Amy Grant again. |
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| I think our biggest crowd was in Portland. |
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