Amy Grant's First Full Length Album In 10 Years, 'How Mercy Looks From Here,' Set To Be Released On May 14

For the first time in an entire decade, GRAMMY® winner, Amy Grant, will be releasing a full length studio album entitled, 'How Mercy Looks From Here.'

Grant began her career over 25 years ago in gospel music and has since become and iconic pop star, songwriter, television star and philanthropist, according to her website.  She has sold over 30 million albums and won six Grammys ® in multiple musical categories.  She has six #1 hits and and is one of only two Christian artists to ever have received a star on the legendary Walk of Fame, in Hollywood.

The new album embraces both the triumphs and the challenges of life with the use compelling vocals and very personal messages, according to Todays Christian Music.  "I feel the most settled in life and creatively, I feel like a kid again," Grant said of the new album.  "A lot of major life changes happened during these past few years.  So on this record, there's zero filler. Every song has a real story behind it."

"So many of the songs that ended up on this record were either already written or at least the idea was completely fleshed out in my head," Grant said according to a clip from Vimeo.com.  "You know the hardest time is when you don't have anything to say.  But ten years go by, there's a lot to write about."

The album features great musicians including James Taylor, Carole King, Sheryl Crow, Eric Paslay, Will Hoge and her husband, Vince Gill, Todays Christian Music reports.  It was inspired by a conversation that Grant had with her ailing mother, who she dedicated the album to. "A conversation I had with my mother a couple of months before she died helped set the direction for this record," Grant said.  "Mom had a lifelong curiosity that kept her young at heart even when her mind was failing. One night, when I stopped by to visit her on my way to my bus to drive to a concert, she was surprised to discover that I was a singer."  Grant realized that this was one of those days that her mother couldn't remember.

Her mother's advice for her as a singer was to "sing something that matters," and this is what she tried to accomplish with this new album, according to Todays Christian Music.  "At some point in life you realize that some things really matter and some things don't," Grant said. "Living matters. Celebrating life matters. Seeing the value in hard times matters. Relationships and people matter. Faith matters. I feel like that's where my head has been while writing and recording this project. I feel this is a very positive record. I hope it is life affirming. Life prepares us for the journey. You don't know what's ahead and that is one of the great things about getting older in a framework of faith. Faith is the one thing that stands the test of time."

The first single on the new album is a song entitled, "Don't Try So Hard," a soft ballad about resting in the grace of God that is sung with the help of James taylor, Todays Christian Music reports.  "I've loved his voice forever," Grant said.  "I said, 'I hear James Taylor on these lines and I'd love to ask him if he'd sing on this.  He worked from home and he really spent some time stylizing it. He sent me a really sweet email afterwards saying that he'd 'spent the last several days with my voice in his head and hoped I was pleased.'"

Grant and all of the artists that helped her in the production of this new album contributed emotion and meaning to each and every song.  "I know our emotion got simmered into those songs," she said in the Vimeo clip. 

She hoped that the new album would be reflective as well as inspirational.  "I just wanted these songs to be a celebration of the journey of life," she said on Vimeo.  "This is about songs that have been so instrumental in helping me frame life changing events.  And some of them are really hard in my own life, but framing them in a way that I see the purpose of it, the beautiful purpose that's brought meaning to things that I thought were going to take me under."  After taking ten years to create this album Grant said, "I feel like it's the best thing I'll ever do."