Sitting down and sharing an afternoon with Dianne Wilkinson is like spending an afternoon with an old friend, a kindred spirit. Dianne is a delightful woman with a heart of gold. She is funny, outspoken and loves God. Her deep love for the Word shines through in every song that she writes. It is no wonder she is recognized as one of the premiere writers of our time.
Dianne is best known for being a "quartet song writer" Most will recognize her as having written numerous songs for The legendary Cathedrals during the 1980s until their retirement in 1999. Yet Dianne is writing strong today and has numerous songs recorded by several male quartets as well as trios, mixed groups and soloists. Some of Dianne's best penned songs are: "Behold the Lamb," "Boundless Love," "The Father and The Son" (recently recorded by The Freemans), "Jesus Has Risen," "O Come Along," "King Jesus is Coming," "Hey Jonah," "The Old White Flag," "What Salvation's Done For Me," and a host of others.
Perhaps the song Dianne is most recognized for is "We Shall See Jesus" that the late Glen Payne and the Cathedrals sang. Dianne shared with me that this particular song was originally pitched to Kirk Talley, who was singing tenor with the Cathedrals at the time and he passed on it. Dianne, being young and naive, pitched it again! To her delight, The Cathedrals recorded it on their Atlanta Live recording in the mid 1980s.
Dianne firmly believes that songwriters must not compromise the doctrine of our faith and that the Bible must be the center of each and every song. "Some of my later songs are about trying to encourage Christian's not compromise. Somewhere there will always be some fundamentalist folks to believe that the Bible means what it says. In or out, heaven or hell, lost of saved, right or wrong."
I asked Dianne what she thought of some of the new writers in the southern gospel field. She shared that "The future of our profession is in good creative hands." Some of her favorite young writers are Joseph Habedank, Scotty Inman and Sonya Isaacs.
Dianne Wilkinson takes her calling as a songwriter very seriously. She realizes it's a gift from God and that there is an anointing on her life to write doctrinally sound music. When asked what her best piece of advice was for up and coming songwriters it was simply "To know that you are saved and have a real relationship with Jesus Christ and you must be a life-long student of the Word." She further states, "When it comes to the crafting, you must be able to take rejection, have patience and thick skin. The Lord will send little nuggets by you so its important to have our antennas pointed up!"
Dianne shared with me her deep desire for the southern gospel community to pray for its songwriters. Singers can't go and sing if the writers aren't writing and Satan will use many, many things to distract and deter writers from writing sound, deep songs. So prayer is vital for our songwriters to keep on keeping on!
With a heart after God and love for southern gospel music, it is no wonder that Dianne has seen the favor of God upon her life. She loves the artists who sing her songs, is humbled by the fans who sing every word and respects her peers. Dianne Wilkinson is an open vessel and there are sure to be hundreds, if not thousands of songs yet to be penned from this very talented woman.
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Written: 05/16/2011
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Lady Dianne is the best friend anyone could have. She is a true southern belle with a heart of gold to match the gold she writes in her songs. Not enough words to tell how great she is.
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