Jeri wrote:
Songwriters' circles? Good idea. Who would be better able to offer intelligent criticism of songwriting than a songwriter?

Precisely. I was in a songwriting group a couple of decades ago. It was extremely useful. It's true we didn't say nasty things to each other; we tried to criticise gently - say something nice before saying something critical, etc.

I found it very helpful to have others as a sounding board; to get (hopefully) honest, constructive criticisms about what works and what doesn't. In my experience, friends are often hesitant to sound critical, even though I would prefer to hear about a song's weaknesses rather than unqualified, uncritical praise. It gets to the point where I sort of don't "trust" the opinion of someone who only says nice things; I think, "Would you tell me if you didn't like it?"

I have a few good friends who will tell me when they think a song of mine has problems, and I treasure their feedback.

I'd suggest that I'm not the only singer-songwriter with this attitude. Yes, of course there are plenty of us who over-rate ourselves and are unwilling to take in any kind of negative feedback - but you will find such people in any and every field of endeavor.

And I wholeheartedly agree with alanabit's comment:
I have heard better guitarists than George, but I have not yet heard a performance by George in which I felt that his guitar playing detracted from his song.

One last comment: Someone above (sorry, haven't been able to re-find it in order to quote it) said something about there being plenty of music-writers out there who would love to pair up with a lyricist.

I started off writing parodies, because I find words much easier to play with than notes. I'd love to have someone provide music for my words/give me tunes to come up with words for. Maybe it's me, but it may not be as easy to find a musician to pair up with as one might expect. (Actually, I'd also love to find a singing partner. I keep looking, but nothing's worked out, so far...)