Copious Notes

Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman on stage at Rupp Arena Sunday, April 26, 2009. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

When you get a ticket to a concert featuring Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman, there are moments you hope for.

Like, the pair riffing on each other’s gargantuan catalogues. After Chapman finished his first-half solo set at Rupp Arena Sunday night, Smith came out and said, “You know, you didn’t sing one of my favorite songs. May I?” and launched into the Chapman classic, The Great Adventure.

Smith in the opening number, Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Chapman complimented Smith saying, “You should do an album of Steven Curtis Chapman songs,” and then returned the favor singing Smith’s Place in this World.

They were moments that remind you iconic artists are fully capable of appreciating other iconic artists’ work. They can also razz each other like guys standing around the grill on Saturday afternoon.

In one of several age-related jokes, 46-year-old Chapman lauded 51-year-old Smith for “blazing a trail,” for him. “So I blazed a trail?” Smith replied. “At least I wasn’t clogging in Opryland,” he said, referring to one of Chapman’s pre-contemporary-Christian-music superstar gigs.

It was an evening of good humor and deep appreciation for the singers, and basically a two-fer for the audience that was nowhere near as big as the dual-headliner bill deserved. Rupp, in it’s 5,000-ish seat Heart of Rupp Arena configuration, looked to be about half full. Maybe Christian stars shouldn’t compete with regularly-scheduled church activities, because the Lexington crowd is usually much more supportive of Christian pop.

The crowd that did turn out got to see Smith and Chapman together and in individual sets, which were strikingly different.

Smith had the most cohesive musical presentation of the pair. Taking the stage on his own in the second half, he offered a few blasts from the past, including Secret Ambition from the 1988 release i2Eye and Go West Young Man from the album of the same name. He also played The Giving from his 2000 instrumental album, Freedom, which sounded surprisingly good without an acoustic piano or orchestra.

But Smith’s recent focus has been worship music, and once he launched into a set from his current A New Hallelujah album and his Worship efforts, Smith was deep into his own element. And while some of us may lament a dearth of his greatest hits in Smith’s recent shows, he is a compelling worship leader.

Chapman sings Yours, a song he said had taken on new meaning since the death of his daughter.

Chapman’s set was an all-too-modest greatest hits set. What was striking was, it is difficult to remember a Christian artist with as focused a testimony as Chapman currently has. Most everyone in the house knew that last May 21, Chapman’s 5-year-old adoptive daughter Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman was killed in a tragic accident at the family’s home.

Any question as to whether Chapman would address his loss was quickly answered when he introduced his 2007 hit, Yours. He said the tragedy forced him to reconsider the implications of the lyrics about turning everything over to God, and later in the set said he had a new perspective on a lot of his music. He also said he thought he would never be able to sing Cinderella, a song he wrote for his daughters, again. But he did at his first concert back on stage last July, and performed it last night, beautifully isolating the final line in the song about a dad having to let go of his little girls as they grow up: “I know the truth is the dance will go on.”

Chapman actually shared his testimony about Maria, the third child he and his wife adopted from China, in a great little song arc, concluding with God is God, a song about trusting the almighty from his 2001 album Declaration.

Chapman and Smith combined for a tidy three hour show, including an intermission and pitch for Chapman’s Show Hope charity which supports orphan children. They both addressed their Kentucky connections, Chapman talking about his Paducah home and brief stint as a pre-med student at Georgetown College and native West Virginian Smith talking about his Rupp Arena memories, including concerts there when he was Amy Grant’s keyboard player.

The sweetest moments between the two though were not so much when they bantered or played each other’s tunes, but when they were simply there for each other. Smith told the crowd the original set list did not include Chapman’s I Will be Here, and he would have refused to tour without Chapman including it, before he played keyboard’s for Chapman’s rendition of the classic.

And half way through Smith’s Friends, Chapman strode out to sing the chorus, and Smith deferred to him for the final line, “A lifetime’s not too long to live as friends.”