Rock of Ages...Hymns & Faith (CD - 2005)

Personnel: Amy Grant (vocals); Vince Gill (vocals, acoustic guitar, mandolin); Burton Grant (spoken vocals); Dean Parks (electric guitar, slide guitar); Will Owlsey (electric guitar); Richard Bennett (arch guitar, cavaquinho); Stuart Duncan (fiddle); John Catchings (cello); Jim Horn (tenor saxophone, horns); John Jarvis (piano, Wurlitzer piano); John Hobbs (Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond b-3 organ, synthesizer); Willie Weeks (double bass, bass guitar); Chad Cromwell (drums); Jenny Gill, Andrea Zonn, The Fairfield Four, Bekka Bramlett, Billy Thomas, The Brazos River Mountain Boys (background vocals).

Few Contemporary Christian artists have walked the tightrope between the secular and the devout as well as Georgia-born singer Amy Grant, and none have achieved her level of mainstream success. With her distinctive brand of joyous, upbeat songs of love, Grant repeatedly reached the heights of the pop charts during the 1980s, '90s, and beyond. However, Grant has a more reverent side to her aesthetic, as evinced by the HYMNS & FAITH series. ROCK OF AGES, the second of these records, finds the singer exploring many of her favorite songs of worship, both solemn and uplifting, on an album that flows with the energy of an old-fashioned revival.

Grant's stirring vocals are suited perfectly for old-school bluegrass, and it's on this note that she opens the record with a dramatic interpretation of "Anywhere with Jesus." She artfully skips over to a more modern CCR bent with the charismatic "Carry You." ROCK OF AGES hits a peak when Grant follows an inspired medley of classics with a breathtakingly earnest rendition of the title track in duet with her husband, country artist Vince Gill. Grant sings with a spirited grace, and ROCK OF AGES captures her at her most devotionally reflective. minimize