Point of Grace: Christmas, cookbooks and staying centered
Contemporary Christian group performs Saturday.
Point of Grace stunned the Contemporary Christian music world in 1993 by releasing a debut album with six No. 1 singles. Thirty years later, the group, which launches its Gloria Christmas Tour with special guest Mark Schultz and host Andrew Greer at the Arbogast Performing Arts Center in Troy on Saturday, Nov. 25, is still going strong.
Point of Grace formed at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas in 1991 and released its groundbreaking debut album two years later. The group, named New Artist of the Year at the 1993 GMA Dove Awards, went on to sell more than 8 million units, score 27 No. 1 singles and win a dozen more Dove Awards, including Group of the Year in 1996 and 1999. Point of Grace received a Dove Award this year for Inspirational Album of the Year. It was the group’s first win since taking home three trophies in 2011.
Shelley Breen and Denise Jones have been members of Point of Grace since the beginning. Leigh Cappillino replaced founding member Terry Jones in early 2004. The group was a quartet from 1991 until founding member Heather Payne’s exit in 2008. In addition to more than a dozen albums, the singers released a best-selling cookbook, “Cooking With Grace,” in 2010.
Breen recently reflected on the group in advance of their appearance.
We’ll sing an evening of Christmas songs, and we like to keep it pretty classic. We’re pretty old school, nostalgia-driven, when it comes to Christmas music. It’s a lot of songs that bring back memories of Christmas like “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Joy to the World.” We’re going to do a really beautiful piano-vocal rendition of “O Holy Night.” Hopefully it will be a great centering night before the chaos starts. The tour starts the day after the day after Thanksgiving. I’m one of these people that celebrates one holiday at a time, but the game is on the day after Thanksgiving.