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Indeed. It may be slightly predictable that Southern Baptists are the most vigorous consumers of the Homecoming albums, but who would have guessed that Roman Catholics are Gaither's second-largest audience?

One seldom hears this kind of music in certain churches, Gaither allows, because of gatekeepers who are "sometimes just as concerned about preserving who they are culturally as theologically." But television offers a way around the gatekeepers, and channel surfers are sometimes surprised to discover music that transcends stereotypes of taste and piety. The Gaither Music Hour, now appearing on eight different cable networks, attracts 75 million viewers a year.

Pundits are quick to note the analogous success of O Brother Where Art Thou?, a collection of bluegrass and Southern spirituals that became one of the best-selling albums of the year in 2000. "People like good songs," Gaither says, explaining what O Brother and the Homecoming have in common. "Music today relies so much on electronics and on production that there is a new market for that which goes back to the basics—good, solid songs with convincing lyrics and singable melodies, done with honest emotion and with the integrity of conviction—music that you know the artist really cares about, songs that you feel the artist has to sing."

As a child, Gaither became enamored of gospel groups like the Statesmen, the Dixie Four, and the Harmoneers Quartet. He admits that it may have been the sound and the "boogie woogie beat" that first grabbed him, rather than the lyrical content, but a deeper appreciation for the message in the music would come in time.

That message is what would remain constant throughout the next four decades, though Gaither would devise a variety of packages for presenting it. Though many new fans are only now discovering him, Gaither was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame more than a decade before the first Homecoming album came out, and he has garnered 20 Dove awards dating back to 1969, when that prize was first presented. He has left his mark as a songwriter, as a performer, and as a promoter of Christian art.

In 1963 Gaither wrote "He Touched Me," a song that would be recorded by hundreds of gospel performers (including Elvis Presley) and would be featured in dozens of hymnals. Many more popular hymns would follow: "Because He Lives," "The Family of God," "Get All Excited," "I Am Loved," "I Am a Promise," "I've Just Seen Jesus," "Jesus, We Just Want to Thank You," "The King Is Coming," "Let's Just Praise the Lord," "Sinner Saved By Grace," "Something Beautiful," and "There's Something About That Name."

More often than not, Gaither's partner in songwriting has been Gloria, his wife of 42 years. Typically, Bill focuses on the music and Gloria on the lyrics, but there is no clear or consistent division of labor, and the two Gaithers also write songs on their own and with other collaborators. In recent years their children Benjamin Gaither and Suzanne Jennings have also become noteworthy composers of Christian music (another daughter, Amy Gaither-Hayes, teaches at DePauw University).

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April 2004, Vol. 48, No. 4