Page "Amy Grant" Paragraph 4

During 1976, Grant wrote her first song (" Mountain Man "), performed in public for the first time — at Harpeth Hall School — the all-girls school she attended, recorded a demo tape for her parents with church youth-leader Brown Bannister, then later when Bannister was dubbing a copy of the tape, Chris Christian, the owner of the recording studio, heard the demo and called Word Records.

He played it over the phone, and she was offered a recording contract, five weeks before her 16th birthday.

In 1977, she recorded her first album titled Amy Grant, produced by Brown Bannister ( who would also produce her next 11 albums ).

It was released in the Spring of 1978, one month before her high school graduation.

That fall she performed her first ticketed concert — in Fort Worth, Texas — after beginning her freshman year at Furman University.

In May 1979, while at the album release party for her second album, My Father's Eyes, Grant met Gary Chapman, writer of the title track ( and future husband ).

Grant & Chapman toured together the summer of 1979.

In the fall of 1980, she transferred to Vanderbilt University, where she was a member of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta.

Grant then made a few more albums before dropping out of college to pursue a career in music — Never Alone, followed by a pair of live albums in 1981 ( In Concert and In Concert Volume Two ), both backed by an augmented edition of the DeGarmo & Key band.

It was during these early shows that Grant also established one of her concert trademarks: performing barefoot.

To date, Grant continues to take off her shoes midway through performances, as she has said " it is just more comfortable.