Q- What songwriters do you admire most and why?
A- Ever go to a songwriter round at The Bluebird? It’s a thing of beauty when the four songwriters start responding to each other in song. There is a subtle competition running underneath what seems like a very causal affair. I loving watching a good songwriter discover a great piece of writing coming from across the room and upping the ante. You can practically read their minds-“wow that’s really good…but check this out..”
Leonard Cohen-This guy writes straight poetry. His attention to detail and the brilliance of his nuanced phrases is a wonder to hear or read for that matter. The production on his records is sometimes jarring for me. Strange and corny synthesizers sit along side stiff and overly produced drums. The songs themselves however are brilliant. You can read Cohen’s lyrics as poetry and they’re almost stronger than they are as songs. Mysterious, complex and funny.
“I’d howl at your beauty like a dog in heat”
Leonard Cohen-I’m Your Man
Mary Gauthier-Mary’s songs are water tight. For the most part she writes with simple language but makes it sound impossibly elegant. That is a potent combination. She makes common language speak to something bigger without ever forcing you to the final destination. Absolutely brilliant and disarmingly honest. Just reading her lyrics can bring tears to your eyes.
“Every day I wake up and wonder
How will I make it on my own?
Silly me, what was I thinking
I was on my own all along”
Mary Gauthier-Empty Spaces
Bruce Springsteen-Bruce is an anomaly. He’s simultaneously an unapologetic cheese ball and one of the best songwriters around. The depth of his writing is often missed by people who can’t get past all the New Jersey jewelry and fist raising swagger. He’s not a subtle performer but his writing is at worst fun and at best rich and as insightful as any writer out there. It’s not the Springsteen who wrote “Hungry Heart” that his fellow writers bow to. It’s the guy that writes like this below. And this isn’t even one of his better songs.
Well I took a piss at fortune’s sweet kiss
It’s like eatin’ caviar and dirt
It’s a sad funny ending to find yourself pretending
A rich man in a poor man’s shirt
Bruce Springsteen-Better Days
Guy Clark-I wrote a short piece about Guy Clark a few years ago for Lone Star Magazine. Like Mary Gauthier, Guy usually sticks to conversational language. It’s not as easy as it looks. I love the way Guy will put himself in a song but never tries to ask the listener for pity and never tries to come off as cool. He’s the songwriter some the Nashville guys should be listening to. You know the country songs that sound like the singer is saying, “I’m a dumb ass-aint it awesome?!” Guy doesn’t do that. Look at how he sets a scene and a whole little world comes alive in your head. He’s telling you more with less. This is my goal as a songwriter.
I was sittin’ on the fender of someone else’s truck
Drinking Old Crow whisky, hot 7-up
Out in the parking lot
You can hear the band a playin right through the wall
Ain’t no cover charge, there ain’t no last call
Out in the parking lot
Guy Clark-Out In The Parking Lot
Lucinda Williams-Lucinda is simply brilliant. There’s a vividness to her songs that’s hard to explain. It’s partly the way her laconic voice wraps around the language but taking her writing on it’s own she’s just amazing. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road is a masterpiece through and through but there are stunning pieces of writing throughout her catalog. The thread that runs through most of my favorite songwriters is that they say something bigger than the language they use to say it. Here is the entire lyric to Lucinda’s Lonely Girls. Have you ever seen more said with less?
Lonely girls, lonely girls
Lonely girls, lonely girls
Heavy blankets, heavy blankets, heavy blankets
Cover lonely girls
Sweet sad songs, sweet sad songs, sweet sad songs,
Sung by lonely girls
Pretty hairdos, pretty hairdos, pretty hairdos
Worn by lonely girls
Sparkly rhinestones, sparkly rhinestones, sparkly rhinestones
Shine on lonely girls
I oughta know, I oughta know, I oughta know
About lonely girls
Lonely Girls-Lucinda Williams
There are too many songwriters I admire to write about here. It’s a better conversation for a bottle of wine and a record player but when I started thinking about my answer I noticed the element that connects them all so I thought I would write a bit about that. Saying more than the language you use to say it. That’s my goal as a writer and it’s what I admire most in other songwriters.
Sleep don’t come round here no more
There’s too much reminding me what I had before
On your pillow I can smell your hair
left your dress there on the floor
But you don’t love me anymore
Rod Picott-Haunted Man
