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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.

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