(Legitimate) sexism concerns aside, "songstress" in a music review is the equivalent of "toothsome" in a restaurant review.

Doubtful anyone would call any of the people interviewed a "songstress".
They also would not call them a singer, a musician or a songwriter, either.

But Dave, you do get a nod for not mentioning that all-girl contraception band again.

The word for "song dudes" has been Crooner, for a long time.

To me, songstress does imply a certain type of artist (joan baez and her descendants), which never seemed potentially offensive to me unless you were a totally different type of artist.