Meet Jamie Grace

As "Hold Me" comes on the radio, Christian music legend tobyMac's stellar tenor is immediately recognizable. Soon, however, it becomes evident that this is not a tobyMac song.

At a recent media luncheon, I was privileged to be seated with tobyMac (real name: Toby McKeehan), the Christian hip hop sensation who came to prominence on the music scene with the pioneering group dcTalk. Now, a successful solo act and record company mogul, tobyMac brought the latest artist to sign with his Gotee Record label along to meet the journalists.

Jamie Grace has travelled an increasingly familiar path from her Atlanta-area suburb to recording in Nashville with some of the biggest names in Christian music: a YouTube channel.

"I heard that this young lady had posted a video, '14 tobyMac songs in four minutes'," says McKeehan. "I had to check it out. It was really good, so I searched around to find what else she had done."

"I had just started recording videos and posting them," says Jamie Grace. "Some were original songs, others were covers."

McKeehan's efforts to reach out to Jamie Grace, however, were not immediately successful.

"He's not really Twitter-proficient," says Jamie Grace, a long-time dcTalk fan. "He didn't realize he needed to follow me in order to contact me. Even then, I wasn't sure it was really tobyMac."

Refusing to give up, McKeehan made another attempt to contact Jamie Grace, this time through her website. Her mother returned the call, and, as they say, the rest is music history.

Now a college student, Jamie Grace attended New Creation Center (NCC), a homeschool co-op, during her high school years. Teachers there were as impressed by Jamie Grace's humbleness as they were with her academic and musical abilities.

"She wrote a song for a demonstration speech," says Sarah Hughes, her Speech/Debate class facilitator. "Everyone was so complimentary when she was done, but she just casually thanked them and showed everybody how 'easy' chording is on the guitar."

'Easy' is exactly the adjective I would use for Jamie Grace's first EP release. The self-titled disc contains four songs, including "Hold Me," which has made a steady rise up the Christian radio charts. Jamie Grace seamlessly entwines a folk/pop musical thread with the smooth sound of R & B and a taste of hip hop which all feels natural and comfortable, a welcome respite from the deluge of auto-tuned vocals released of late.

Jamie Grace's vocal abilities continue to shine on "One Song at a Time (which features GabeReal of DiverseCity) and "Holding On" as well. My least favorite track is probably "Into Jesus", the dcTalk classic is so iconic that I believe it would be hard for anyone to cover the song without exacting comparisons. I have to give her props for braving the waters admirably.

Jamie Grace's confidence and character will serve her well as she enters into a ministry that will no doubt impact others nationally and even globally. Hughes does not discount the impact of faithful parenting on Jamie Grace's ability to succeed.

"Pastor and Mrs. Harper loved their girls first to the cross and then towards the giftings God had given them," says Hughes. "Jamie Grace and (her sister) Morgan knew that God loved them and their parents loved them, so they each viewed and used their musical talents in school with a secure confidence."

A self-taught musician who is proficient on piano, guitar, drums, and, yes, even the ukulele, her musical and academic successes are even more astounding due to the fact that Jamie Grace suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, a condition she was diagnosed with at the age of 11. Unwilling to allow the syndrome to control her life, she is not only moving on despite the condition but reaching out to other teens similarly afflicted. She has created teenWts (Teens with Tourette's Syndrome) to provide help and understanding that she feels she needed in her own battle with the condition.

As she heads to Nashville to finish work on a full-length album scheduled for release in the fall, Jamie Grace still appears humbled by the experience. That does not surprise her former teacher.

"She possesses genuine humility," says Hughes. "The kind of complete ease she has found in her own skin because of her relationship with Christ."