Music That Seems to Spread Itself “It’s crazy. I’m as amazed by it as anyone. Every time an e-mail comes in, I sit here thinking, ‘How did this person hear that music? I’ve never been there.’” Christopher performs occasionally on weekends at churches and coffee houses – and he has a small website. That’s about it. Even so, a slow but steady trickle of e-mail finds its way to him from around the country, and more recently from places like Australia and the Philippines. People are sharing his music with each other. “Either people want permission to perform the songs themselves,” he says, “or else they’re just writing to say thank you for a particular song. Those are the ones that really blow my mind.” He shuffles through a sheaf of e-mails. Someone wants to use a song in a church in Sidney. Someone wants to use a song in a senior dance recital in Montana. Someone is writing to say that a song at a concert several years ago pulled her back from the brink of suicide. People write to tell about how a song found them as they struggled with bulimia, or after the loss of a daughter. “It’s humbling,” he says, “because a lot of the time I feel like I had very little to do with it. Often, I wasn’t even there when the music mattered. This guy pulled me aside after a concert a few years ago and told me how he was driving along in his car, listening to ‘Gently Leading Me,’ and he suddenly had this big epiphany. He pulled the car over, and just listened and prayed. He wanted me to know that it had been a turning point in his spiritual journey, in his life. I was floored. The songs just go out there on their own, and these very cool things happen.” Here in Providence is Grundy’s fourth collection of music, and he has clearly learned to write and perform in a way that speaks to people. This CD is a mixture of stories, love songs, and songs about life: teen pressures, family ties, the ethics of shopping, and issues of faith. Grundy seems to wander back and forth across the boundary between sacred and secular music in a way that pulls the two sides together. The musical styles range from pop songs like “Out on This Wire” to ballads like “The Fisherman’s Daughter,” to other styles like “Compline,” which is a cappella. Christopher has played in coffee houses, camps, churches, and on college campuses from the Carolinas to the Dakotas, from New York City and New Hampshire to Kansas and Colorado. Presently he is based in St. Louis, where he lives with his family. He is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, teaching preaching and worship at Eden Seminary.