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When Dove and Grammy award nominee Kathy Troccoli first learned that she was nominated as "Songwriter of the Year" for the 1998 Dove Awards, she was shocked. So were many of her fans. In over a decade of putting out albums and gaining renown as one of the foremost vocalists in contemporary Christian music, Troccoli's singing prowess completely overshadowed that she was, in fact, writing a lot of the hit songs on her albums.
Today, Kathy Troccoli the artist and Kathy Troccoli the songwriter both take center stage on her ninth album, Corner of Eden. All ten songs on this latest offering were either penned or co-penned by Troccoli. "A great song is a great song," she remarks with candor, "and if I can own it or have lived it or want to say it, I can sing it from my heart and I'm happy to do that. But when you sing a song with a lyric or melody that is written from your own life experience, that's special."
One of the other special touches that permeates Corner of Eden is the selection of Nathan DiGesare as producer. Having already worked with some of the most well known producers in mainstream music, choosing Nathan for this project was quite unusual. Troccoli first discovered DiGesare and his talents through songwriting demos he had submitted for the project. Kathy was so mesmerized by the production work on the demos that she made the quick, but smartly intuitive, decision to ask Nathan to helm her new record's production. The pairing turned out to be pure magic. "Even beyond his songs, I just loved his freshness and creativity," Kathy gushes. "Because we clicked so much, we started writing together and it was just such a great partnership."
With such kudos for her producer's contributions, you might think Kathy got lost in the musical shuffle of the making of album number nine. Not quite. Through DiGesare's guidance, Troccoli found that she was able to hone and deepen her songwriting skills more than ever-musically and lyrically. Vulnerability is a word Kathy uses often to describe the soul of Corner of Eden. It's a watchword that has guided both her lyrical outpourings as well as her life. And that realization is abundantly evident throughout the ten songs that grace her latest project. "What shocked me most," she remembers of the recording, "was that I was really truly able to say 'I've failed God...I've turned my back on God...things that we don't ever really want to say. I want to be abandoned to God more than ever, but I also realize how life is still such a struggle, hanging on is such a struggle. We all want to act like we're in a place we're not." Communicating with such honest abandon was like a fresh breath of air for Troccoli. Although no one would ever accuse the effervescent diva of being a shrinking violet, Corner of Eden really did allow Kathy, for the first time, to step away from the "safe, traditional" lyrics she gained number one hits with and enter into a much more introspective world of artistry. But rest assured, it's not all introspection in here. Even though Kathy grapples with the harder questions of life and faith, she remains, assuredly, a true believer who finds her deepest longings and hopes fulfilled in the hands of her Lord and Savior and still makes that foundation an integral part of her music.
For almost as long as Kathy Troccoli has been making music, her heart has been making the rounds of a number of humanitarian organizations. Kathy has never shied from lending her voice in a mission of caring for organizations as wide ranging as Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship, to LifeTeen, the Catholic Church's premiere youth organization to His Touch Ministries, a Houston based AIDS organization. On her previous album, Love and Mercy, one standout song became life-changing for both Kathy and for those who heard it. "A Baby's Prayer", a Dove award winning song sung from an unborn baby's point of view, impacted listeners so deeply that Kathy was moved to create A Baby's Prayer Foundation. The organization raises money and awareness for life-affirming organizations, and gives a compassionate face and caring hands to the fight for life. Basically," she says matter-of-factly, "when something comes my way and I see a need, my first response is usually, 'let me see if I can help you.'"
As a young girl Troccoli had another dream. "I'd always watched other women, great women, whether in the media or just people in my own community who had done great things. I admired their ability to communicate. I longed to grow into that." Oddly enough, that's exactly what Kathy's career now finds her doing and being daily-from stages across the country, while talking one-on-one to concert fans, while visiting the unique settings of the many ministries she supports or by speaking and singing at women's conferences across the country. Looking back on that childhood wish from this side of adulthood, Kathy marvels at her answered prayer. "Wow, Lord You have put me in this position" she says, "and I don't want to take it for granted. I'm so thankful to come into a little bit of what I hoped to be as a young woman."
As others have seen that woman emerge, both in Troccoli's artistry and ministry, Kathy is often asked about when she was "called" to do all that she's been doing. With trademark candor she answers honestly, "I really didn't set out to be involved with so many different issues, but through traveling and meeting people opportunities have arisen. I feel like if there's a way I can do something, I want to help. A lot of times I feel the need is the call, and you just step in if you can. That's what I've tried to do."
Trying to balance a life of artist, minister, role model and single woman in today's world is Kathy Troccoli's challenge. And her joy. Her talent has brought her all the awards of fame: twenty Christian radio hits, three mainstream Top 10's, dozens of television appearances on everything from the 700 Club to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Recently she even co-hosted her own television series with comic Mark Lowry, The Mark and Kathy Show, featuring celebrity guests and Christian artists. Her face has graced the covers of national magazines, and on the concert stage Kathy has appeared with Boyz II Men, Michael Bolton, Jay Leno and Jon Secada. She's even blended her voice in a duet with the legendary Beach Boys with the song, "I Can Hear Music", which reached the Top 10. She opened her heart with her first book, a devotional collection, My Life Is In Your Hands (Zondervan Publishing) and continues to share her life and songs from concert stages across the country. In fact, one of her greatest pleasures, she says, "is the time on my tours when I sit on the stool and just sing with my piano player." It's that one-on-one camaraderie with an audience that has endeared herto thousands.
As for finding a place of peace in the midst of the whirlwind of everything that is in Troccoli's life, Kathy admits that it's sometimes difficult to listen to her own advice. "I'm one of the thosepeople who has to remember to enjoy the moment when I'm in the moment, because I always want to be about something else-something higher, something richer, something deeper. I can let the days pass by when I am living in richness and not enjoy it as much as I could." Finding her own "corner of Eden" however, is not as elusive. "My corner of Eden" she recalls wistfully, "is with the people who have been with me through the thick and the thin, and who know my soul and love me. That exchange-those sweet exchanges-feel like pieces of Eden to me."
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