VALDOSTA — Singing the refrain, “I’m gonna walk, I’m gonna talk for my Lord,” the girls dedicated the gospel tune to the songwriters of Brother Colbert and Joyce Croft.

The girls didn’t know it, but the Crofts were sitting in the audience. The husband-wife songwriting team of the Crofts were surprised to hear their song.

Given they have written 5,000 songs, you wouldn’t think they would be surprised at all to hear their songs performed at gospel events. They will certainly be performed Monday during their 21st Annual Labor Day Gospel Sing. The event includes the Crofts, as well as Brother Archie Watkins, whom Joyce Croft estimates has recorded about 24 Croft songs with the Inspirations. The legendary Naomi & The Segos has recorded Croft songs and will perform during Monday’s event.

As songwriters, many people know the songs but don’t associate them with the Crofts. The Kingsmen and Marty Stuart, for example, lead a long list of musicians who have sung and recorded “I Can’t Even Walk (Without You Holding My Hand).” So, for a Marty Stuart fan, “I Can’t Even Walk” is a Marty

Stuart song.

It is, but it isn’t. It’s a Croft song. They wrote it in 1974. The Crofts penned the lines: “I can’t even walk without You holding my hand. The mountain’s too high and the valley’s too wide. Down on my knees, I learned to stand. And I can’t even walk without You holding my hand.”

There are thousands of songs: “Flow Through Me,” “I Believe He Died For Me,” “Come Into the Presence,” “Almost Home.” But “I Can’t Even Walk” has become their signature song.

Joyce Croft laughs recalling one time when she and her husband performed the song. “The pastor’s wife said, ‘That is my favorite song.’ We thanked her and asked, ‘When did you find out we wrote it?’ She looked at us and said, ‘You wrote it?’”

WITHOUT YOU HOLDING MY HAND

Music brought the Crofts together.

Joyce had taken piano lessons in Valdosta since the age of 12. Her high school senior year, Joyce performed in one of her music teacher’s programs. Colbert worked sound equipment, recording the show.

“He used flattery and said he wanted a date with me,” Joyce says. They’ve been together ever since, married for 45 years now. The same number of years they have ministered.

In addition to loving one another, they discovered a natural musical rapport. He would think of a song and sing it. Having studied music, she would pick up the tune immediately and play it.

Early, he told her to write the song down. “We may have sheet music one day,” she recalls him saying. “Little did we know we’d eventually have sheet music for 5,000 songs.”