These days, Amy Grant is spending as much time looking back as she is looking ahead.

Her latest album, "Somewhere Down the Road," forced her into that position. Not a "new" album in the traditional sense, "Somewhere Down the Road" is a pastiche of new songs, a couple of unreleased tunes, some older songs she re-recorded and others she simply lifted whole from previous albums.

The album is bound together by a common theme that revolves around the journey that is life.

"It was an idea that just developed slowly," Grant says of the new album during a telephone interview from the Nashville, Tenn., home she shares with her second husband, country artist Vince Gill. "I'm so glad to have a record deal, period, just in this crazy time in the music industry. I thought it was a nice combination of familiarity and new stuff, with a theme."

Grant, who is touring in support of "Somewhere Down the Road," will make a stop Sunday night at the American Music Theatre. The singer-songwriter, who turns 50 in December, will showcase some of her new songs but also will draw from her deep, hit-laden catalog.

She has a lot to choose from, as Grant, who has won six Grammy Awards, revolutionized contemporary Christian music by dragging it into the mainstream with songs of faith like "Lead Me On" and "Father's Eyes" that resonated on a number of levels. She then completely crossed over and became a huge pop star on the strength of tunes like "Baby Baby" and "Every Heartbeat."

Grant says she doesn't ignore any phase of her career during her shows.

"I definitely walk down memory lane," she says. "I don't necessarily do all the songs that had radio success, but I just try to imagine how I feel when I go to a show. I want to hear people's old stuff.

"I think people come because they want to hear the music, but I am told they like some of the stories behind the songs. I don't just blab on endlessly between songs but I like the feeling in a concert setting to be very casual and relaxed and, hopefully, it just feels like the living room."

Among the members of her band will be Jenny Gill, whom Grants calls her "I-do daughter" because "I inherited her when I married her daddy."

Singing a duet with her on the new album is her daughter Sarah Chapman, whose father is Gary Chapman, Grant's first husband.

When it came time to pick some tunes from previous albums for the new one, Grant didn't look for the obvious and she didn't select from her best-selling work.

Instead, she plucked a couple of songs ("Somewhere Down the Road" and "Every Road") off "Behind the Eyes," a 1997 album that came a few years after her successful excursion into the pop world. Though it didn't sell particularly well, at least by her standards, artistically it is one of her best. Grant believes it didn't get the attention she thinks it deserved because A&M, her record company at the time, was going through massive personnel changes.

"That's an example of an album that I thought had a chance to make a bigger impact," she says. "That was following a sort of fun, intensive pop run -- the two albums 'Heart in Motion' and 'House of Love.' " Those had a lot of pop ditties, which are fun and have their place, but not a whole lot to chew on."

The new album gave her the opportunity to revisit those neglected gems and look toward the future. Her tour gives her a chance to stroll through her entire career, and connect with her fans.

"I always look forward to anytime I get to sing," Grant says. "It used to be the bulk of my life but now it's kind of the treasured moments. There are times when you feel you've got all the time in the world to throw into what you're passionate about. Then your kids come along and your parents get older and you go, 'Well, I'm still passionate about that but it has to find its place amongst all the other needs.' "

Amy Grant

Sun. 7 p.m. $67

American Music Theatre

2425 Lincoln Highway East

397-7700. www.amtshows.com