Amy Grant releases wistful single about Jan. 6, Woodstock

Contemporary Christian singer Amy Grant released a new single this week that wistfully reflected on whether the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, marked the end of the 1960s idealism supposedly embodied at Woodstock.

In her song “The 6th of January (Yasgur’s Farm),” Grant repeatedly asks, “Where’s the road to Yasgur’s farm?” in reference to the farm of Max Yasgur in Bethel, New York, where the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held on Aug. 15-18, 1969. The event, which was marked by rampant drug use, nudity and “free love,” was considered a pivotal moment in the counterculture of the 1960s.

My new music is out now go and play it on Spotify fans pic.twitter.com/pC0bSIjjwc

— Amy Grant (@AmyGrant371049) January 8, 2026

“All that wide-eyed hope / Were we so naive?” Grant asks in the song, which was introduced to her by Sandy Lawrence, the mother-in-law of Jenny Gill, who is part of Grant’s family with husband Vince Gill.

“I look ahead and realize we’ve lost our way,” says another lyric.

The song also mentions Marvin Gaye, laments the loss of the ideals in John Lennon’s “Imagine” and claims the spirit of Woodstock has been “scattered all to hell and Harper’s Ferry,” an apparent reference to the West Virginia town where abolitionist John Brown seized a federal arsenal and attempted to incite a slave insurrection in 1859, inflaming simmering tensions on the eve of the Civil War.

“Maybe there is hope to come together and find the way forward through the unrest. I believe in that hope. I hope this song brings you some too,” Grant tweeted Thursday in promotion of the song.

Grant, who has sold more than 30 million albums and earned six Grammy Awards, recently told USA Today that she sees “unrest” as one of the major themes of the song.

“I think sitting with unrest is where we ask important questions. What can I do differently? It can be unrest about anything,” she told the outlet. “I can’t help but see life through the lens of someone born in 1960, and when I see my children and their children, everything is vying for everyone’s attention.”

“Unrest is the invitation to say, ‘What do I have control over, and what choices can I make in the world we live in?’ We have so much power and influence in our own lives,” she added.

The politically charged nature of Grant’s new single and its positive spin on John Lennon’s anti-Christian worldview drew criticism from some on social media, who suggested it betrays a liberal streak at odds with Grant’s core audience.

“Amy Grant, who is pro-LGBTQ and hosted a lesbian wedding at her home, is brooding over January 6th — longing for the days of godless Woodstock and John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ in the lyrics of her new song. This is who is considered the queen of contemporary Christian music,” one popular Christian X user wrote.

“Anyone who believes that Woodstock or John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ are things to celebrate has, as she sang, truly lost their way,” said Howell Scott, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Carlsbad, New Mexico. “Amy Grant is a prime example of someone following her own way, which, sadly, always leads to destruction. Only Jesus’ Way leads to life.”

Columnist John William Sherrod said he found Grant’s new single musically good, but “hilariously cringe” lyrically.

“I don’t know what Amy Grant’s full political history is, but while her audience is overwhelmingly conservative Evangelical Boomers and Gen X, she herself has been pretty obviously left of center for a while,” he said.

“A few years ago she hosted a same-sex ‘wedding’ for her niece. In her new single she speaks wistfully (and positively) about the lyrics to John Lennon’s ‘Imagine,’ which is a song that is demonically pro-Marxist and anti-Christian. ‘Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try.'”

Sherrod said Grant’s single “pines for an era of hippies and a time when all of politics wore a veneer of ‘respectability’ that she doesn’t understand was always a mask. January 6th is blamed for shattering that political myth for her, and she desperately wants to return to a pre-Trump era where you can bankrupt the country and send thousands of American soldiers to their deaths in the Middle East sands as long as you don’t compose mean tweets.”

Grant prompted rebuke from Christian leaders such as Franklin Graham in 2023 when she defended hosting her niece’s same-sex wedding at her farm in Franklin, Tennessee.

“I never chase any of those rabbits down the rabbit hole,” Grant said at the time in response to criticism.

“I love my family, I love those brides. They’re wonderful, our family is better, and you should be able to be who you are with your family, and be loved by them,” she added.