Who's your personal favorite song writer

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 04:38 AM

cStu - the same. He's a versatile guy.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 10:19 PM

Jesse Winchester

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 10:08 PM

Hmmm. For me, personal favorite depends a lot on who I am listening to at the moment.

Today, Elizabeth Cook
Yesterday, Hugh Moffatt
Earlier in the week, Norah Jones, Tom Paxton

Actually, I'd stack that list up against most any for listenability over a long period of time.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Peace
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 10:02 PM

George W Johnson, 1866

I wandered today to the hills, Maggie,
To watch the scene below
The creek and the creaking old mill, Maggie,
As we used to long long ago
The green grove is gone from the hills, Maggie,
Where first the daisies sprung
The creaking old mill is still, Maggie,
Since you and I were young.         

2. Oh they say that I'm feeble with age, Maggie,
My steps are much slower than then
My face is a well written page, Maggie,
And time all alone was the pen
They say we have outlived our time, Maggie,
As dated as songs that we've sung
But to me you're as fair as you were, Maggie,
When you and I were young.




As far as I'm concerned, it ain't been equaled yet.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Arkie
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 09:13 PM

Jayto, nice to get an amen.

I am glad to see Sydney Carter and Bob Franke finally make the list.

Fred Eaglesmith's name just popped in my head. An exceptional writer.

John Williamson from Australia has also written many good songs. There should be more writers from Down Under in this list. I like Kasey Chambers, but more as a singer than a songwriter though she has written some good songs.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Joe_F
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 08:49 PM

I have been compiling a list of songs that are, in some way, magical for me, and looking up (as best I can) their authors, composers, & dates; so I can give a quantitative answer to this question. So far there are 280 songs on the list.

Anon. wins hands down, with 99. Runners up are Robert Burns & Rudyard Kipling, with 5 each. Stan Rogers has 4, and Cyril Tawney, Woody Guthrie, and Michael Flanders have 3 each. There are twelve who have 2, and the rest are 1-hit wonders.

The median date of composition is 1900.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,cStu
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 08:38 PM

Peter Blegvad the cartoonist?

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:29 PM

I assume we get Dylan free, like the Bible and Shakespeare on Desert Island Discs. After Dylan, Robyn Hitchcock; after him, Peter Blegvad.

I'd also recommend Hilary Bichovsky, Carl Corbett, Richard Frisson, Mark Greer, Mark Simpson and Copland Smith (in alphabetical order) - none of them's particularly famous, but they're all fine songwriters.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Acorn4
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:10 PM

In the current crop of singer/songwriters, Richard Shindell.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 06:59 PM

Hoagy Carmichael!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Elmore
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:57 PM

Bob Franke, Enoch Kent,Kate Wolf

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:44 PM

Thanks Joe and Mrs Scarecrow, you put me with esteemed company indeed!. Mine are:

Rob Johnson
Leon Rosselson
Stan Rogers
Eric Bogle
Sydney Carter
Jez Lowe
Cyril Tawney
Dave Webber
the whole bunch of the Cornish songwriters
and going off-centre a bit:
Billy Joel
Mark Knopfler
Angelo Branduardi

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Silver Slug
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:40 PM

wHO IS Guy Garvey? Perhaps we are long-lost cousins.

He fronts a British Indie band called Elbow. Excellent musicians, sometimes wonderful lyrics and melodies, brilliant live, and a crap name which should ensure that they don't get the recognition they deserve. Still, the're good enough for me!

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Jayto
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:33 PM

You are my kinda person Arkie GREAT list.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Brakn
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 05:25 PM

Probably Loudon Wainwright. Love Bruce and Hank as well.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:44 PM

Richard Grainger,Bert lloyd,Ewan MaCColl,Dick Miles,Alan Smethurst,Tom Lehrer,Lennon and Maccartney,Stephen Foster,John Conolly.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: mg
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:37 PM

wHO IS Guy Garvey? Perhaps we are long-lost cousins.

I was trying to think of more women too. Certainly Judy Small, Linda Allen. Lady Christina Oliphant? Do I have her right. Lots of Scots classics. Certainly Dolly Parton. Sylvia Tyson came up with one stunning song to me..Truckers' Cafe. Sometimes they might be really well known for only a few songs..Mary Benson with Sail Away. Linda C. of B.C. on Canning Salmon. My favorite is Gordon Bok and Robert Burns and Stephen Foster. mg

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Silver Slug
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:33 PM

So many favourites, (note the proper spelling!) including

Lennon/McCartney for simple tunes like Things We Said

Brian Wilson, God Only Knows - simple yet beautiful

Neil Young, Graham Nash, Steve Stills and Dave Crosby for Deja Vu

Paul Simon - For Emily... will always move me

Fairport Convention for Babbacombe Lee

Guy Garvey - songs which have stopped me in my tracks over the last few months.

Kirsty McColl - tragically no longer with us. "I fell out of favour with Heaven somerwhere and I'm here for the hell of it now"

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Mrs Scarecrow
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:23 PM

Bill Caddick , Jon Heslop, George Papavgeris (not sure if I spelt thet right) Dave reader, Gilly Kemp, Anne Lister, and then on a broader scale Joni Mitchell ,Leonard Cohen, Ian Anderson but the problem is as soon as some one mentions another name or sings another song I would say oh and them as well, really the favourite is going to depend on my mood at the time it may even be me

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Arkie
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:07 PM

The list could go on and on. Some others in the country vein who produced good songs over a considerable period of time are:

Merle Travis
Harlan Howard
Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
Lefty Frizzell
Hank Thompson
Willie Nelson
Marty Robbins
Roger Miller
Tony Joe White
Dolly Parton
Kris Kristofferson

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: topical tom
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 04:01 PM

Eric Bogle has a great mastery of words and rhyme but I also like Tom Paxton, Stan Rogers,David Massengill,Garnet Rogers, Utah Phillips,Pete Seeger, and the list goes on and on.....

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Francy
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 03:58 PM

Woody Guthrie...Hank Williams......Merle Haggard........Townes Van Zandt....Tom Russell......David Olney....Kris Kristofferson...Joni Mitchell......Eliza Gilkyson........Silvia Frickett........Marty Robbins.....Frank of Toledo

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Mike in DC
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 03:55 PM

Attention must be paid to Dave Carter, perhaps in the "most outstanding body of work written in a relatively short period" category. Sort of the Sandy Koufax of songwriters.

Mike

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Joe G
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 03:39 PM

I knew I'd forgotten someone

Roger Davies

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Joe G
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 03:37 PM

Robb Johnson
Jez Lowe
Tom Bliss
John Tams
George Papavergis
Roger Waters (the Pink Floyd years)
Jim Boyes (for Jerusalem Revisited)


I'm sure I have forgotten some

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Spot
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 03:04 PM

Allllooo everybody...
   

      Favourite songwriter...?   Dave Walmisley (ex -Risky Business UK!)   Bloody excellent writer, first class player,ace singer and a real nice guy!! Not recognised half as much as I think he should be....   :-)

                Regards to all, as ever...Spot

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: olddude
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 03:02 PM

For me it just seems to move day to day based on the music I am listening to. My taste goes all over the field. Some of my favorites

Lightfoot absolutely

Joni Mitchell

Tom Waits, Oscar Brown Jr.

Phil Ochs

John Prine

Also like country like Hank Williams

LeadBelly

Murdoch without a doubt


list just goes on and on depending on the mood - what I am playing or listening to

new one is Dave Van Ronk (thanks to Ditty)

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 02:56 PM

On the distaff side? Mary Chapin Carpenter, Cindy Mangsen, Anne Hills, Kitty Donahoe...plenty more there, too.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Mark Ross
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 02:48 PM

Haywire Mac McClintock, Hank Snow, Pete Seeger, Bill Monroe, Sara Carter, Wilf Carter(Montana Slim), Rosalie Sorrels, Anne Feeney, Hell, the list could go on forever.............

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,cStu
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 02:48 PM

Gillian Welch
Mike Scott
Leiber and Stoller

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Acorn4
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 02:35 PM

Roy Harper in his heyday.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 02:32 PM

Lots of my favorites already listed. Certainly John Prine and Guy Clark will always get a listen from me. Just wanted to add Tim Wallace from out Ohio way. I've only heard one tape of his work, but the man can right a very funny song with a great imagination.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 02:25 PM

Add 2: Travis Edmonson and John Stewart

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 01:23 PM

Me!

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 01:23 PM

Just off the top of my head:
Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot, Jed Marum, Robert Earl Keen, Jr., Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Slaid Cleaves, Dan Fogelberg, Pat Sky, John Prine...

Better stop before I fill up the page...

SC

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Arkie
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:57 PM

Many good ones listed already. Several who will get my attention whenever they have a new recording are:

Iris DeMent
Beth Nielsen-Chapman
James Keelaghan
Charley Sandage (a local writer, musician, educator, who frequently writes many songs about actual events or real people.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:52 PM

I like Bob Dylan the best of all, but I also like a whole lot of others and I think they're all absolutely wonderful, such as...

Gordon Lightfoot
Leonard Cohen
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Jackson Browne
Joni Mitchell
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Shawn Colvin
Ian Tyson
Al Stewart
Jagger and Richards
David Bowie
Van Morrison
Loreen McKennit
Enya
Chris Smither
Carly Simon
Joan Baez



Really, the list goes on and on. There are a lot of great songwriters out there.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Jayto
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:45 PM

Thanks for letting me know. Yeah I am still trying to get the hang of the site. This is the first community site I have ever really been active on. So this is a new experience all the way around for me.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: PoppaGator
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:42 PM

Jayto:

Your clickable links didn't work for me, but they did work when I copied-and-pasted them into my browswer address line. That means they're correct as far as they go, but are incomplete.

It took me a while to learn the correct procedure for Mudcat "blue clickies." The trick is to copy the COMPLETE web address, including the "http" prefix. If you start off with the "www" part, it doesn't work. I now always actually go to the desired site to highlight and copy the entire address that appears on the address line.

It's been a long time since I learned to work it properly, so I don't remember all the details of my early failures to create working links. I think some of my efforts used to link to incorrect pages within Mudcat. I believe inclusion of the full "http://..." is necessary to get outside Mudcat and onto the World Wide Web.

Thanks for the research, at any rate, and for making the effort. You already seem like an old-timer around here; it's a bit difficult to realize you're still a "newbie," at least in some regards, and could use a little help here and there, learning to navigate the small details...

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Jayto
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:36 PM

I used to play guitar for Patti Griffin. She has one of the strongest voices live I have ever heard. I remember the first time I met and heard her. It was in a little club in South Nashville called Jack's Guitar Bar. Steve Earle was part owner for a while it was a cool little place with a ton of good writers and musicians always hanging out. I had a standing Monday night gig with a buddy of mine Chris Knight. Patti had came to town working on her first CD. She liked Chris's writing (all I did was play guitar at the time) and she came out to catch us live. In between sets she got up and did a few songs and I was blown away. She pretty much pinned me against the back wall with her very first note. Her voice is powerful live really strong and rich. I remember I would always get her to do The Cat's Out of the Bag. I used to love to hear her do that song. I remember she was so shy it was funny. Everytime anybody would say something to her she would look like she was about to crawl under the table but when she took the stage she owned it and the crowd. She is amazing.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:28 PM

Wendy Waldman ... I went to a songwriter's workshop of hers .. a wonderful person and yes a damned good songwriter.

On the female side of songwriters I'll put in a plug for Patty Griffin and the late Laura Nyro.

biLL

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: open mike
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:08 PM

http://www.lucindawilliams.com/
her collection Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is a classic.

oh, and Wendy Waldman, and Carol Elliot, and Mary McCaslin,
and...Sarah Elizabeth Campbell...and Anne Hills, Cindy Mangsen,
Kathy Mattea, Joan Baez, Julie Gold, Dolly Parton, Sally Van Meter,
Dar Williams, Lucy Kaplansky.....

Karla Bonhoff and Julie Miller and Tammy Fassaert and k.d. lang

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:02 PM

My personal favorite songwriter?

Bruce Murdoch

See this post for examples of verses from Bruce's "Matters of the Heart" CD that I consider to be skillfully, and beautifully crafted.

thread.cfm?threadid=112880&messages=285#2412361

There are other Bruce Murdoch songs from his other recordings that are my favorites. Among them are "Plains of Jericho", "Maximeline", "Come Across To You", "If I Had Wings", and "My Country Tis Of Thee".

Switching genres, I also believe props should be given to these two great gospel songwriters:

Thomas Dosey {I particularly love Precious Lord, Take My Hand
and Peace In The Valley}

and

Rev. James Cleveland {my favorites are Peace Be Still and I Stood On The Banks [of Jordan].

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Marion
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 12:00 PM

Thanks Jayto. But, are you able to hear any of the songs on her homepage? I clicked on about a dozen song titles at random and just got "N/A" written beside them. I don't know if that's because I don't have some player installed or if they're not meant to be playable files.

I did find the four songs that she has on myspace.

I think the difficulty that I've had in finding a female songwriter to add to my favourites list is that I have a strong preference for songs that tell stories about other people, preferably real people. The five guys I listed above (Stan Rogers, Jed Marum, Bill Gallaher, James Gordon, and Utah Phillips) all concentrate on other people's stories, mostly based in real history, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of women writing on these topics. The women writers I've heard seem to concentrate more on their own feelings and relationships - that's true of most male songwriters, too, but then most male songwriters aren't on my favourites list either.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Jayto
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 11:40 AM

www.myspace.com/lucindawilliams

Here is her myspace link.

www.lucindawilliams.com

That is her website

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Marion
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 11:36 AM

Poppagator, Jacqui C. also listed Mudcatter Jeri, who is a woman. Do you know if Lucinda's songs can be heard online anywhere?

Or for that matter, can any of Jeri's songs be heard online?

Marion

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: john f weldon
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 11:34 AM

Good answer, Sailor... ...I like the guy wrote "Twa Sisters" around 800 AD.
Also Alan A'Dale who was clearly a real person, even if Robin Hood wasn't.

I'll put in a word for the funny folk...

Noel Coward
Gilbert and Sullivan
Tom Lehrer
The Berrymans

...I usually prefer a good laugh to a lot of angst.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: MMario
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 11:28 AM

PopaGator - I saw at least 5 women mentioned.

Personal favorites: I'd have to go with
Mike Campbell
Jed Marum
Jeri
Andrew McKay

Subject: Lyr Add: YOUR MIND IS ON VACATION (Mose Allison)
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 11:23 AM

One of my all-time favorites is Jazz/Blues performer and composer Mose Allison. Some of the most pungent and clever lyrics I've heard are his. Once example:

YOUR MIND IS ON VACATION

You sittin' here and yakkin' right in my face,
I guess I'm gonna have to put you in your place.
You know if silence was golden,
You couldn't raise a dime,
Because your mind is on vacation and your mouth is workin' overtime.

You quotin' figures and droppin' names,
You tellin' stories about the dames
You're over-laughin' when things ain't funny
You tryin' to sound like you're big money,
You know if talk was criminal,
You'd lead a life of crime,
Because your mind is on vacation and your mouth is workin' overtime.


You know that life is short,
Talk is cheap;
Don't be makin' promises that you can't keep.
You don't like this little song I'm singin'
Just grin and bear it,
All I can say is if the shoe fits wear it,
If you must keep talkin'
Please try to make it rhyme,
Because your mind is on vacation and your mouth is workin' overtime.

Subject: RE: Who's your personal favorite song writer
From: Jayto
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 11:15 AM

Yeah you can't leave out Lucinda she is great. Thank you PoppaGator for adding her in the mix.