Sandi Patty

No other Christian artist at work today is better suited to sing about life’s journey than Sandi Patty. Still bursting with creative energy and magnetic talent three decades into her career, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee with 39 Dove Awards, five Grammy Awards, and an armload of platinum and gold albums has seen professional peaks and personal valleys alike while in the spotlight, all of them tempered by the grace of God.

“I have a lot of life experience,” she says, understating what is truly a legend’s history.

Now these defining moments are shared with a deep wisdom on Songs for the Journey, featuring eleven dynamic new performances from Sandi purposefully chosen to reflect her walk in faith from childhood through today. Listeners are sure to recognize their own stories among the selections, connecting with the struggles, joy, and peace along the way.

“The idea for this project came from watching my kids get older,” explains Sandi, mother of eight. “I recently began to wonder and hope about what things they will someday look back upon as being foundational in their lives. Then I asked the same question of myself in relation to my passion for music—what are the songs that have inspired me and come to represent my journey, and how can I give those back to others as an encouragement?”

The resounding answer is Songs for the Journey, a lovingly crafted achievement that’s as diverse and entertaining as Sandi Patty herself. While previous releases displayed her gift for singing hymns, pop, gospel, Broadway, and even opera, none have ever combined these styles into one grand expression as pleasing and effective as this one.

Sandi’s church upbringing is evident on jubilant cuts like “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” and “Joyful, Joyful” featuring arrangements that ring with the excitement of Sunday morning worship and a holiday symphony respectively. Not shy about one of her most important influences whom she first heard in high school, Sandi covers two Andrae Crouch songs, giving his close-to-her-heart “Through It All” a 1970s R&B flavor and the classic “My Tribute” its choir-driven due, culminating in a magnificent vocal note.

Raised by a music pastor dad and piano playing mom, music really was a cornerstone in Sandi’s young life. She studied voice in college, and it’s no surprise that she has received major theatrical offers throughout her career upon hearing “Operator,” a fun and fluid mix of jazzy gospel and blues singing that seeks a direct line to Jesus (Don’t want no text, she riffs at the end). Also stage worthy is the impeccably performed “For Good” from the Broadway musical Wicked that Patty beautifully translates into a more spiritual context.

Consider a show like American Idol where the judges often emphasize the importance of song choice, emotional believability, cross-category range, and master class performance; Songs for the Journey is a pitch perfect display of each eleven times over.

The set was recorded in Nashville and at Bill Gaither’s studio in Indiana. Producer David Hamilton also traveled to Prague to record the orchestral parts for stirring numbers like the operatic “Panis Angelicus,” a duet between Sandi and her husband, Don Peslis, who possesses a remarkably rich voice for someone who is an character educator by trade.

Inevitably, the mention of Sandi’s marriage brings up its rough-road origins. She and Don have been forthright to the church and the public about their affair some fifteen years ago that sealed the dissolution of each one’s previous marriage. It’s a reality that is clearly marked on Songs for the Journey’s “Were It Not for Grace” and “Through It All.”

“In a manner of speaking, the unconditional love and grace of God doesn’t mean as much to people until they really need it,” Sandi says in relation to that past. “But like the Andrae Crouch song suggests, I wouldn’t trade anything it if meant I wouldn’t have the current understanding of who God is and who I am because of Him.”

In addition to recording and special performance dates with big city orchestras, Sandi now spends a lot of time singing and speaking about her journey at the Women of Faith conferences held throughout the United States.

“My time with Women of Faith is so valuable to me. It’s a treasure in my life,” she admits. “I love going out every weekend and sharing my story of how God has been faithful. It’s time for me to pass along what I’ve learned to others. I can attest that the fog will clear, that everything is going to be okay.”

Today, Sandi Patty lives with her husband and their blended brood of eight children (ages 12 to 24) in Anderson, Indiana. She’s coming to terms with the bittersweet realization that the kids are all practically adults and is encouraging the oldest ones to get married and bring on the grandchildren. A die-hard Indianapolis Colts fan, she nevertheless now refuses invitations to sing the national anthem at home games because the team has lost every time she has done that in the past. And she’d still like to tackle Broadway someday.

“It won’t make or break my life. My family will always take precedence,” Sandi says. “But I’d love to check that off at some point.”

Indeed, the journey goes on.