Amy Grant: 'How Mercy Looks From Here,' Talks About New Album And Taking Care Of Aging Father

Singer/songwriter, Amy Grant, appeared on Lifetime's, 'The Balancing Act,' on May 28 at 7:30 a.m. (EST)

Grant spoke with co-host Danielle Knox about her newest CD release, 'How Mercy Looks From Here,' on Grant's lovely 700-acre farm estate just outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

"Every day I loved going to work, every single day. The first time I walked into the studio and met Marshall Altman, I looked at his creative environment and I thought, 'I absolutely relate to this kind of organized chaos," Grant told Knox.

The new album features backing vocalists, James Taylor, Carole King, Will Hoge, Sheryl Crow, Eric Paslay and Grant's husband Vince Gill.

Knox asked Grant if there were a particular song on the new album that stands out to her over the others."Probably the most vivid picture painted of any of these songs, I wrote a song about my son and his experience losing a good friend when they were 19 and 20, and the song is called 'Shovel In Hand,' and its probably got the most strong emotional reaction because I left the graveside and I went straight to the airport," Grant responded. "I had to catch a flight and all I could picture was all of these boys with their suit coats on the ground and their white sleeves rolled up and every one of them had brought a shovel to that cemetery because they didn't want a hired gun to bury their friend."

Grant also spoke to Knox about what it has been like to care for her father, who has been suffering from dementia since the end of 2008. "In the end of 2008 I came home, I'd done a lot of touring that Fall, and I saw such a pronounced change in my Mom and Dad and I called my manager and said, 'cancel everything for 2009,'" she said. "I just knew something was different and I didn't know how much time we had. My mother was getting so frail, but it was during 2009 that every week I would go, 'Dad, you're talking differently than you were last week' and so he hit that slippery slope of really fast progressing dementia."

Grant's mother died in April of 2011 at age 80. She explained that, given the circumstances, the fast progression of her father's dementia may have been kind of a blessing in disguise. "In a way, it's a crazy kind of gift because my father adored my mother. We talked to my dad about things that mattered to him. He said, 'I want to stay with your mom.' And we just slowly had the discussion about Mom driving, we transferred power of attorney. I mean, it's tough, but things happen all of the time to families," she said.

Grant got a little choked up talking about her parent's dementia. "My dad spent his entire... it's hard to talk about," she said. "I know this is just... this is the way their lives will end, but nothing in me, not one part of my believes that this is the end of them. But there are moments I feel my mother more present than I did in the last three years of her life."

Knox and Grant took a stroll on her beautiful farm estate and ventured inside of her family's lovely wooden house. "Some of the best stuff happened in here," Grant said. "So, he loved coming and building a fire and sometimes we'd bring a picnic and it just, it didn't require a lot of words."

Grant described the experience of sharing music with her father as he directed her. "And he would just say, 'Beautiful,'" she said.

Tags : Amy Grant 'How Mercy Looks From Here' lifetime 'The Balancing Act' New album Father dementia