Nobody really disputes that a singer/songwriter can bring a passion to their song that’s hard to match, since they’ve lived the lyrics.

But can it be done? Can an artist who has been down a similar path, with similar life experiences, bring the same pathos and enthusiasm as the original songwriter?

My personal opinion: It’s rare but possible. I think of someone like George Younce singing “Thanks to Calvary” (which, admittedly, the Gaithers wrote from his life experiences) or “Sinner Saved by Grace,” or Libbi Perry Stuffle singing “I Will Find You Again,” or Bryan Hutson singing “When God Ran.” So I think it can be done.

There are still a few artists out there today that deliver their own great material, but not near as many as we had in the past. There is something special about hearing the songwriter sing their own song.

Is this quantifiably true?

Are there fewer good singer/songwriters then there used to be? Of course, we have prolific songwriters like Bill Gaither, Rodney Griffin, Joseph Habedank, Jim Brady, Mark Bishop, and Scotty Inman at the forefront, who frequently are supplying groups other than their own with material regularly, and we also have less prolific writers like Ernie Haase, Misty Freeman, Dustin Sweatman, Sheryl Farris, McCray Dove, Ernie Haase, Gary Casto, and Kim Collingsworth.

Fortunately, singer/songwriters are still a major part of the genre. But are they less so now then they used to be?

“I have decided
I’m gonna live like a believer
Turn my back on the deceiver
Gonna live what I believe
I have decided
Bein’ good is just a fable
I just can’t because I’m not able
I’m gonna leave it to the Lord”

I just picked up a Bill Gaither Trio LP, Bless the Lord Who Reigns in Beauty (1981), that has the song. They evidently liked the song but not the lyrics, changing it to this:

“I have decided
I’m gonna live like a believer
Turn my back on the deceiver
Gonna live what I believe
I have decided
Bein’ good is not a fable
I know I can ’cause He is able
I’m gonna live what I believe”

Despite this, Michael Card was credited as a sole songwriter.

What are the most significant lyric changes you’ve noticed without a different songwriter being given?

http://www.southerngospelblog.com/songwriters/2009josephhabedank.xls

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By my count, he has published 27 songs, of which I have recorded versions of 15.

It has been fun to watch him grow as a songwriter; his first major group cut was “What a God” on the Perrys’ Life of Love (2004). He’s gone from there to co-writing songs like “Grip of Grace” and “Tired of Running.” (The latter song is a song I will be speaking highly of when I review the Dills’ brand-new release, Story of a Lifetime, here some time in the next few weeks.)

How many of his songs do you have? What are your favorites?

Just because a line was a good idea 200 years ago, for Fanny Crosby or Phillip Bliss, that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for your song.