|
Performing couples struggle to maintain a balance between
artistry and family. In their single, “So We Never Got to
Paris,” Scott and Christine Dente’ displayed a snippet of
marriage’s rocky road and devotion’s power to conquer all
obstacles.
The couple met as students at Boston’s Berklee College
of Music. Scott, a native of River Vale, New Jersey, enrolled at
the school after a stint loading trucks in a Manhattan warehouse.
Despite a period of less than diligent application, Dente’
devoted his energies to mastering guitar and songwriting.
“My guitar teacher confronted me,” he admitted. “It
was obvious I hadn’t been practicing. He said, ‘Scott, you
have to decide right now if you want to be a guitar owner or a
guitar player. His words hit me hard, and I actually started to
get my act together.”
Originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Christine studied
classical voice at Carnegie-Mellon University before trekking to
Boston to focus on contemporary pop styles. After dating
Scott’s roommate for a short time, she and Dente’ began
drinking coffee together, and the relationship blossomed.
However,
Christine’s strong Christian faith prevented the couple from
developing a serious tone since Scott embraced Buddhism and New
Age thought. But Christine’s persistence and an introduction to
the Bible, Amy Grant, and C. S. Lewis directed him to
Christianity’s truth. As their faith and love deepened, the
couple married in 1987 and moved to Nashville the following year
to embark upon their musical careers.
“God redeemed a
potentially bad situation and used it to his glory,” Scott
explained. “Neither Christine or I would recommend dating a
non-Christian. We were just very fortunate everything turned out
like it did.”
After waiting
tables for several years, Sparrow Records signed the pair to a
recording contract, and the duo debuted Out
of the Grey in 1991. Christine chose the phrase for their
musical partnership after finding it in Scott’s lyric notebook.
“It never became
a song,” she said. “It was wanting to be – it never did.
It’s slightly a grey phrase in itself, but it alludes to the
obvious – the black and white – the truth in a world of
relativism.”
Four more albums
followed on the Sparrow label, and the husband-wife team garnered
10 number-one singles and four Dove Awards along the way. One of
their more unique songs, “So We Never Got to Paris,”
drew its
inspiration from a video shoot for “All We Need,” a single
from their third album, Diamond
Days.
Steve
Taylor, the
director, wanted to film the footage in Paris to achieve a
special lighting effect. However, Christine was pregnant with the
couple’s middle child at the time. Although neither had visited
the City of Lights previously, the shooting schedule required her
and Scott to leave for Paris shortly after Carina’s birth.
Despite the disappointment, they decided the journey could wait
and produced the video in Nashville instead.
Christine penned
the song that appeared on Out of the Grey’s fourth CD,
Gravity, shortly after the video shoot. The composition deals
with the tension and drama of life’s priorities and
responsibilities, and the melody creates the sound and feel of a
French bistro.
“You take some of
your dreams, you weigh them with where you’re at right now, and
you say, ‘This one can go.’” she said. “So we never got
to Paris. Big deal! There are only so many things that you can do
or accomplish in a given year or even a given lifetime.”
Following a
three-year layoff, Out of the Grey produced its sixth studio
recording, 6.1, in 2001. A label switch to Rocketown Records reinvigorated the
husband-wife singing/songwriting team.
“In 1999, we
wondered if the Out of the Grey chapter was closing for us,”
Scott revealed. “Our friends, family and fans encouraged us to
start again and after much prayer and many late night
conversations, we felt the desire to jump back in.”
As in their
previous works, 6.1
incorporates the essence of interpersonal relationships
with both God and family. “Truth Breaks Through”
reminds listeners actions teach better than words, and the songs
“Brave,” “Shine Like Crazy,” and “Grace, Mercy and
Peace” demonstrate love provides strength, joy, and blessing.
“In our songs, we
don’t always have the answers or the solutions,” Christine
said. “Sometimes we’re still trying to figure those things
out ourselves, and songwriting allows you the freedom to express
that. If more Christians could admit some of those struggles,
even Christian artists, we would be so much better off.”
|
