Songwriter Daryl Williams posted an insightful column over at SoGospelNews about singer/songwriters in Southern Gospel Music. One thing he said, in particular, caught my eye:
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?