We can all breath a sigh of relief. When Bill Gaither, Squire Parsons and Kyla Rowland start to slow down (at least 30 or 40 years from now) there's still going to be strong, biblically based lyrics for Southern Gospel artists to sing.

Singing News Magazine just completed its first ever Singing News Songwriters Search. We received hundreds of songs from all across the country. Let's just say our judges (Kyla Rowland, Ronnie Hinson, John Darin Rowsey, Aaron Wilburn, Daryl Williams, Twila LaBar, Mark Bishop and Chris Binion) had their hands full.

Congratulations to Daryl Petersheim on writing the winning song, "The Empty Tomb Says it All." Daryl, I can't wait to see what you can do after you've worked on your craft for a while.

I was privileged to produce the winning song. The tracking band included Nashville's top studio musicians. I'm talking award winners here. The Singing News All-Star Quartet provided the stellar vocals. The quartet included, Paul Lancaster (lead), Johnny Minick (baritone), Mike Allen (bass) and Jimmy Fortune (tenor). Now that's what I call a southern gospel quartet! The mixmaster himself, Terry Thompson engineered all of the sessions, including the final mix. "The Empty Tomb Says it All," will be included as a bonus cut on the Singing News Top 10 Song of 2008 CD, on New Haven Records.

There were several runners-up writers, all of whom have tons of potential. I am quite confident that you'll be hearing songs from all of the winners on your local southern gospel radio stations, very, very soon.

Ah, everything's going to be okay.