The Grammy Awards will be given out next Wednesday night. And Gladys Knight is in the running for the "Contemporary Soul and Gospel" album of the year award for "Many Different Roads."
Yet even if Knight loses, she'll be a winner.A convert to the LDS Church, Knight is every bit as much a pioneer as the 1847 handcarters. With her album she has led Mormon pop singers and songwriters a little closer to the Promised Land -- the mainstream of contemporary Christian music.
And she has led them there with courage and cleverness.
For years, popular LDS singers and artists have been locked out of the Christian market. The paintings of LDS artist Greg Olsen were hot items in Christian bookstores, until he was found to be a Mormon. His work was immediately pulled from the walls and shelves.
In California, singer Tami Isaacson was getting great air time on Christian radio and was a rising Christian pop star. Once her LDS roots were exposed, however, she was dropped.
But Gladys Knight is a different story.
Although she's LDS, Knight's legacy as a soul singer gives her instant credibility.
And now she is sharing that credibility with her friends.
Janice Kapp Perry and Sen. Orrin Hatch, for instance, wrote two songs for Knight's album: "Jesus' Love Is Like a River" and the title cut, "Many Different Roads." And though it's rather striking to see Perry's name mixed in among so many black, super-hip songwriters, seeing Sen. Hatch's name listed next to so many soul brothers is boggling.
Julie de Azevedo, the LDS answer to Amy Grant, also has a song on the album, "Mercy's Arms." And on one music Web site, Knight goes out of her way to praise it.
"I'd say a song like 'Mercy's Arms' is my own testimony," Knight writes. "It makes a statement that we're all just lowly human beings, we're so imperfect and we fall so short and yet God loves us no matter what."
For her part, de Azevedo has said she's "blown away" by Knight's interpretation of the song and claims she refused to record it herself, hoping someone like Gladys Knight would come along who could do it justice.
As for that "cleverness" I mentioned, it shows up on the album in a dozen ways.
At one point on the album, Knight talks about many young people being "out of the church" today -- knowing full well some listeners will hear that as the "Christian church" while LDS fans will be listening with different ears.
And when Knight sings the gospel classic "Precious Lord" as a tribute to her mother, she expands the phrase "lead me" to "lead me, guide me" and -- as the song fades out -- to "lead me, guide me, walk beside me," a tip-of-the-hat to Naomi Randall and her legendary song, "I Am a Child of God."
"Good Morning, Heavenly Father" by Sam Dees and Andrea Coltrane will also stir many LDS longings. Just as the rousing version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" that brings the album home will prompt knowing winks.
In the end, I don't know if the Grammy folks are aware of all this. I doubt they are. My guess is the selection committee members simply know quality work when they hear it, and they heard it on "Many Different Roads."
In fact, the album could very easily win a Grammy. It's every bit as strong as "So Cool" by Take 6 and the CeCe Winans album that are also in the running.
But even if it comes up short, "Many Different Roads" has already proved the valiance of Gladys Knight -- a true pioneer in the hearts and minds of the people she has embraced as her own.