“It’s chaos here - we have one practising Mozart, another practising Havana and girls singing K-pop and Taylor Swift,” Keith Getty tells me from his Ballybogey home.
Together with his wife Kristyn and four daughters, the award-winning hymn-writing family split their time between Nashville and the north coast of Antrim.
Currently enjoying their summer break, they are already looking forward to returning home again this Christmas where they will perform, for the first time, the Christmas show that is already hugely popular in the United States.
The Gettys have been touring their Irish Christmas concert across America for 15 years and have had two PBS Television specials made in America, both of which were broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland.
Every year they get requests to bring the show back to Ireland but find it “logistically very difficult”. However, Lisburn-born Keith’s 50th birthday was the perfect excuse to throw a Christmas party for all their Irish fans.
Entitled Home For Christmas, their first concert at Belfast’s SSE Arena on December 20 sold out almost as soon as tickets were released. Now due to phenomenal demand the couple are pleased to announce a second Belfast show on Thursday December 19.
“We’re all very excited. It’s part of Keith’s birthday celebration to come home and be with our family and friends here at Christmas,” says Kristyn, who reassures their American fans they will be doing their usual Christmas tour stateside first.
This includes the Grand Ole Opry just after Thanksgiving and finishing in New York’s Carnegie Hall on Keith’s actual birthday on December 16.
“There will be new songs and special guests. Kristyn might even be recording her own version of I’ll be Home for Christmas. We’ve sold over half a million tickets and done two TV specials. It’s been a fantastic journey, bringing the culture of this land and soil to people, and now we are finally bringing it home,” says Keith.
Joining them will be their band – a blend of bluegrass, Americana and Celtic musicians - as well as the New Irish Choir and Orchestra.
Keith describes the concert as a “celebration for all”. “Some of the best hymns that we have are the carols and we share that love with everybody, whether they are of Christian faith or not”.
The first half is like “an Irish Christmas party”, complete with Christmas music, humour and Irish dancing. The second half is devoted to the traditional Christmas nine lessons and carols.
“We only do three or four sentences of the readings, so it all runs in 60 minutes. Then we have a hoedown at the end with Go Tell It On the Mountain and lots of gospel music,” he adds.
And their favourite carols?
“I love to sing In the Bleak Midwinter. It’s a beautiful song in itself and I love the response that it brings to all,” says Kristyn.
“I enjoy getting to sing the harmonies of Silent Night with the whole 10,000 people in the audience. We teach the harmonies to the whole hall, so everybody gets to stand up and sing together, with a guitar and harp gently accompanying,” responds Keith.
The Gettys have been credited with revolutionising the hymn genre. This is largely down to the 2001 hymn In Christ Alone, written by Keith together with English composer Stuart Townend.
Famously penned in a converted pigsty of his neighbours’ in Lisburn on the back of an electric bill envelope, it is estimated that In Christ Alone is sung 100 million times every year.
Keith is still surprised by its success: “It was the first global hymn of the modern era and it landed just as just as church music was moving on to the internet, just as global translations were starting. It’s very humbling.”
The Gettys have recorded 26 albums together, and been nominated for a Grammy Award. They have their own record label and publishing company, Getty Music, as well as their Getty Music Foundation, which is helping educate and spread biblical worship globally.
“It’s amazing to see the work being done globally, from choirs being set up in Romania, to people making hymn books in the Nepalese mountains and hymns being translated into Indonesian dialects,” says Keith.
Last month the couple released A Red, Red Rose, adapted from the classic poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns in celebration of their 20th wedding anniversary.
“On our wedding day I carried red roses and Keith had a red rose in his lapel. We’ve sung it many times on tour, but this recording is special because our two older daughters joined us in singing the harmonies,” says proud mum, Kristyn.
The musically talented daughters, Eliza (13), Charlotte (10), Grace (9) and Tahlia (6) also play a variety of instruments.
So will they be following in their parents footsteps with a career in music?
“We have absolutely no idea. We’re going to be in South Korea in September for a really important Christian event, but all they want to do is meet K-pop stars,” laughs Keith.
“We just want to encourage them in whatever gifts they have and encourage their appreciation and enthusiasm for music. Music is a lifelong gift to give to your child and it feeds into their faith as well,” adds Kristyn, who this month released a new song with southern blues country rock musician Zach Williams.
“He’s a phenomenal singer, who has recently recorded with Dolly Parton. It’s not so much a hymn, but a Celtic soul song, with a bluegrass rock feel. It’s about God’s love and mercy being like a scarlet thread that goes through every story and our own lives.”
When it comes to the craft of songwriting, it’s a team effort.
“We lean towards our strengths - with me that’s lyrics, and for Keith it’s the melody. With congregational hymn songs you’re first trying to find a melody that everybody can sing and let that drive the song. Even if the lyrics are wonderful if nobody can sing it then it’s just a poem on a piece of paper,” explains Kristyn.
Plans for a new album have been put on hold as the couple work towards completing their hymnal – a collection of traditional hymns and new worship songs.
“Two thirds of the book is by composers who are dead. A lot of the rest are updates of new material collating for future generations to use,” says Keith, who believe hymns are “more relevant than ever” in today’s world.
“Hymns point to ancient truths. So many people are suspicious of modern ideas. Some of these beautiful carols we will be singing in Belfast have been around from the fifth and sixth centuries. They remind us of the story of Christmas and Christianity and its transforming power for all of us.”
In 2025 the Getty’s are planning an American tour with the hymnal, before a global tour in 2026 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of In Christ Alone.
Kristyn’s creativity has also led to wider opportunities such as audio recording the entire English Standard Version Bible and appearances in films including Pilgrim’s Progress, Sabina, and the international edition of Leroy and Stitch.
She is delighted to be releasing several children’s books over the next year, including a Northern Ireland-based children’s novel, Pippa and the Singing Tree, a teaching tool about why singing is important and a children’s biography about American Joni Eareckson Tada, which will be released in August.
“She’s been a quadriplegic in a wheelchair for over 50 years after a driving accident when she was 17, and has used the platform of her wheelchair to show faith in a courageous way.”
