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After more than 15 years as a recording artist and songwriter, Cindy Morgan is having the time of her life. Though she has several acclaimed albums and hit songs to her credit, it wasn't until this past April when she experienced the highlight of her career: earning the coveted Songwriter of the Year award at the Dove Awards. Interestingly, the song that inspired the win wasn't even intended to be a Christian single. Morgan expected it to become a country song for Faith Hill or Martina McBride. Somehow, Point of Grace heard it, loved it, and made it the title track of their big comeback album, How You Live. But that's only the first of Morgan's recent triumphs. Her newest album, the independently released Beautiful Bird, is so far one of year's best albums. In this conversation, Morgan talks about the origins of "How You Live," how she had to tweak it to fit Christian radio, and how much she's enjoying her newfound artistic independence.

What inspired you to write "How You Live"?

Cindy Morgan: I was attending the funeral of a friend of our family. He was a man of great wealth and influence in the community—a great humanitarian. His funeral was an enormous production—tons of limousines and multimedia presentations with roses until you couldn't count. People talked about his accomplishments and how much he'd given to the community—how much money he'd made, his business growth, his vacation properties, his yachts.

But I looked up at the family and thought, I don't hear them saying, "He was always there for his kids. He was always there for his son's baseball games. In the end, family was what counted most, as well as his relationship with God." None of that. And the really sad part for me was that it was almost if they didn't even know it was missing. I just went home really disturbed by it.

What did you do with what you'd seen?

Morgan: It moved me, and I just thought, If this was going to be it for me, if this is the last day that I have with my family, what would I do today? And I tried to take a lesson from it, 'cause I sure don't do it all the time.

There's a very strong country-pop feel to "How You Live"—not your typical Cindy Morgan song.

Morgan: When I demoed the song, I just knew it was a country market song. I didn't really think it was for the Christian market, primarily because the original first line of the song is "Make love in the sunlight with all the doors open." I didn't think that was going to fly with Christian radio, so I always thought it was more a song for Martina McBride or Faith Hill. I didn't pitch it to the girls [from Point of Grace]—I don't know how they first heard it actually, but I'm glad they wanted to do it.

So you rewrote the opening lyric for them.

Morgan: I did. I thought, What else is good? What else feels good? What else is something you should do? I've got no trouble talking about [sex within marriage], but I knew some people would feel uncomfortable with that line.

It's still a very Christian thing.

Morgan: It is! It's God-created, making love between a man and a woman. But what would've been sad is if people failed to get past the first line to enjoy the rest of the song. So I thought it was more important to [let more people enjoy it].

What did you think of the finished product?

Morgan: The girls are awesome and they did a beautiful job with it. I'm proud of how hard they worked on the song. They believe in it—that God tells us we're all here for just a moment, that we're just like a mist that appears and then gone. What I didn't expect was that Brown Bannister would produce it like a country song. And I certainly never expected the song to chart in the country market, which goes to show you that God has a plan when we don't.

Apparently the message struck a chord with listeners because you received one of the highest honors in Christian music: the Dove Award for Songwriter of the Year. After more than 15 years when you released you solo debut, what was that like?

Morgan: I was totally shocked. I'm still waiting for them to call me back and say that there was a hanging chad mix-up! I just didn't expect it. Everyone knows that songwriters are invisible. How many people really read the liner notes? Many people think that when an artist sings a song that they're the one that wrote it.

I think what was so grand about that moment for me was that songwriting is my passion. It's so much fun to record it and to see it come to fruition, but the real love affair for me has always been to write the song. Years ago, when I was a teenager and writing songs, my dream was to become a songwriter. I really didn't give the singing part much thought. Songwriting, to me, was the ticket, the way to go. There seemed to be a lot of depth in that.

As something of a veteran in the industry, were you miffed that it took so long for you to win it?

Morgan: You try to not let these things mean so much. I've sat there [at the Dove Awards] so many years and lost so many times, but at the end of the day that's not why you do what you do. So I just learned to tell myself that I would continue either way, whether I win or lose.

Ironically, you won this award now that you're an independent artist—an underdog with no big label to block-vote or give you a push.

Morgan: Yes, I don't have any explanation for it. I really can't define it. My whole decision to [not stay with a major label] was because of creative freedom and all of that. So this was a little bit of a confirmation for me that I was going to be alright.

Do you enjoy being autonomous as an artist?

Morgan: Because I was birthed on the big-label system, I was instilled with a sense of security in it from a very young age. But I think it's a false sense of security. The nice thing for me has been the freedom. Yes, there's more to handle, more to take care of, more to be responsible for. But I think creatively, it's the most freeing thing that's ever happened to me.

As long as there's been a music business, everybody has an opinion of what's good. A good A&R director knows how to guide without wording—how to inspire without editing too much. But I think there's a real lack of that today. Record companies are saying, "The radio department wants this." So instead of doing what is natural creatively, we try to manipulate creativity to fit inside a need—a commercial need. To me, that never results in good work or good music.

Does that mean you're not proud of what you accomplished pre-independence, say, when you were at Word Records?

Morgan: Oh no, I am. I'm very proud of it. John Mays was a great A&R director because he taught me a lot about songwriting and he taught me a lot about raising the bar. Brent Bourgeois was a great A&R director/producer because he said, "Do what you want." But as record companies change over the years, it has become more of a corporate situation. With more artists vying for the same radio spot, you start to focus on how to get that spot. It gets real messy.

That's a big struggle now with record companies. They're all trying to figure out how to get on the radio, but nobody knows how. Who knows how to make a hit? Nobody does. So you just have got to be true to what God has inspired you to do and to be and let it go. Instead, what's happened is we've tried to manufacture and manipulate. Instead of being art dealers, we've become junk dealers.

Were you disappointed when your previous album, Postcards, didn't perform as expected?

Morgan: It's funny because I was a bit discouraged then. I have to say Provident in terms of marketing and promotion did a good job. They really did their best and wanted it to work out. I think the record came at a time when worship music was [still] a big thing, and that's not what my record was.

Now looking back, I'm glad about how it happened. It made me press on and take a closer look at why I was doing this—why I felt I needed to make music with a record label. It made me ask, "Do I really want to keep doing this?"

It seems like there's very little tolerance for artists who don't generate radio hits—for those who are more introspective, or the type who make albums, even those who are considered veterans.

Morgan: Loren Balman, who was the vice president of creative development in Word's heyday (meaning the king of the heap) once said, "We do records like this so we can do records like that. It's necessary for us to do the big commercial records—and people love those, the masses love those—but there are also a few people who want to hear these records. One supports the other."

I'm not sure if it's because the market is over-flooded with too many records or what. I don't know. People are throwing so many things up against the wall to see what sticks. I think the labels are still taking some chances in finding some great artists, but they're releasing a lot of records. It's harder to give each artist the proper amount of attention.

Musically, what is it like to be your own boss and record the music you love?

Morgan: It's awesome. It's great because I've set the bar so high for myself. If you don't have the drive within yourself to excel and be the best you can be, there's nothing that anyone on the outside can do to make you be that. I guess I'm just at the point where I really want to be true to the voice inside me speaking, which I hope people recognize it as being from God.

We think your new album, Beautiful Bird, is one of your best yet. I think it's diverse and it feels more like an outpouring of the creativity welling up inside of you—not so much you wanting to get everyone's attention.

Morgan: Thank you so much. It's definitely an outpouring. There's no doubt for me. And on a business level, since I've spent half of my life as a songwriter, every song on the record is also a sort of song-pitching opportunity for other artists. So it serves me as both an artist and a writer to express myself. If I didn't get to do that, a part of me would die.

I think, no matter what, I will need to find an outlet, even if it's a little songwriter's night at the Bluebird Café [a legendary small venue in Nashville]. I don't think I'll stop recording anytime soon, because I still feel like I have a few more left in me. I hope to keep singing and keeping it going for a while.

Learn more about Cindy Morgan by visiting our site's artist page. You can also click here to read our review of her album Beautiful Bird, which is currently available for download from her official site.

Copyright © Andy Argyrakis subject to licensing agreement with Christian Music Today. Click for reprint information.

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