# Favorite Singer/Songwriters



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

A singer/songwriter communicates through his voice, words, and an acoustic guitar. The importance of the singer/songwriter in our culture is illustrated by the fact that even in our present age; an age of rampant spiritual numbness and consumerism—he has not become a relic of the past, but continues to thrive and serve as a medium for humanity's soul.

Who are your favorite Singer/Songwriters?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Bruce Cockburn
Richard Thompson
Joni Mitchell
Laura Nyro
Mose Allison


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

My favorites:

Atahualpa Yupanqui
Victor Jara
Jorge Cafrune
Alfredo Zitarrosa
José Larralde
Horacio Guarany


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I confess that this is a genre that has limited appeal to me 

Still, I agree with starthrower that Mose Allison is fantastic and I would never have thought of him in this context. Since he has been, I will add Fats Waller. Another favourite is Leonard Cohen, who is likely more commonly thought of in the singer-songwriter genre. Another of the greats of the genre is Wolf Biermann. Johnny Cash might be another. Bob Dylan: does he qualify? Gordon Lightfoot?


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> Bob Dylan: does he qualify? Gordon Lightfoot?


Definitely. But I don't listen to them much. I like songwriters that are more accomplished musicians.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Cohen only had two good albums, but what albums!


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Morimur said:


> Cohen only had two good albums, but what albums!


Which two? I like I'm your Man best, but the early albums are closer to his poetry volumes.


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## Guest (Aug 19, 2015)

Not really my bag, I think only Peter Hammill would be appropriate from my little heap of albums.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Silvio Rodríguez:


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

John Martyn.///////////////////////


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Leonard Cohen
Paul Simon
Tori Amos


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

If sticking rigidly to the singer-songwriter accompanying him/herself on acoustic guitar (or piano) format I can't say I really have any apart from liking some of the old Delta singers like Son House and Charley Patton (and even then the origins of some of their attributed material is nebulous), but if extending the question to a singer-songwriter who sometimes or often plays an instrument and is usually backed by an ensemble or band but isn't actually a group member, then there are numerous:

Laura Nyro, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Dr. John, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Prince, David Bowie...no surprises, and I've no doubt generalised far too much anyway.


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## gHeadphone (Mar 30, 2015)

Elvis Costello
Aimee Mann
Richard Hawley


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

brotagonist said:


> Which two? I like I'm your Man best, but the early albums are closer to his poetry volumes.


Songs of Leonard Cohen
Songs of Love and Hate


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

*Jorge Cafrune / Marito - Virgen India*


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

I also choose Leonard Cohen and Richard Hawley- Bruce Springsteen too, , largely for old times' sake. All great live acts still, even the venerable Cohen!

Still technically classifiable as 'singer songwriters' though obviously not in that 60s/70s folk influenced singer songwriter genre: Roy Orbison, Charles Trenet, Noel Coward. (Orbison's voice was so amazing that it's hard to believe he wasn't _just_ a singer- how could one person have so much talent?!)


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

John Martyn has to win this.






I think I'll bookmark this thread, since nearly all the s/s listed above that I've heard of are quite fine. Those that I don't know should therefore also be worth investigating.

Also I'd like to mention Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Sandy Denny and Al Stewart.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Wood said:


> John Martyn has to win this.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The quintessential John Martyn album.

I liked Nick Drake's first album but didn't really get on with Bryter Layter or Pink Moon. Also Sandy Denny but I don't know much of her solo stuff.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Dr Johnson said:


> The quintessential John Martyn album.
> 
> I liked Nick Drake's first album but didn't really get on with Bryter Layter or Pink Moon. Also Sandy Denny but I don't know much of her solo stuff.


Sandy Denny's album The North Star Grassman and the Raven is the finest, though probably her high point was singing Richard Thompson's songs on Fairport Convention's Liege and Lief. I also like her very early recordings, released as 'It's Sandy Denny', in particular the covers of her boyfriend Jackson C. Frank's compositions 'You never wanted me' and the incredible 'Milk and honey':


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Wood said:


> Sandy Denny's album The North Star Grassman and the Raven is the finest, though probably her high point was singing Richard Thompson's songs on Fairport Convention's Liege and Lief. I also like her very early recordings, released as 'It's Sandy Denny', in particular the covers of her boyfriend Jackson C. Frank's compositions 'You never wanted me' and the incredible 'Milk and honey':


I have Liege & Lief as well as the History of Fairport Convention. I also have Listen Listen, a compilation CD of Denny's solo work (although not including Milk and Honey).


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash. I don't think Johnny wrote as many of his songs but he wrote enough to qualify as a singer songwriter in my opinion.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan, Vashti Bunyan, Joni Mitchell, Linda Perhacs and Sandy Denny.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Florestan said:


> Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash. I don't think Johnny wrote as many of his songs but he wrote enough to qualify as a singer songwriter in my opinion.


Cash was great. His voice alone made the songs he didn't pen _his_.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)




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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Wood said:


> John Martyn has to win this.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Had never heard of John Martyn until now-he should have recorded for ECM. Anyway, great songwriter. Do you have the massive 18 CD compilation; 'Island years'? Might add it to my wish list.


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Morimur said:


> My favorites:
> 
> ...Victor Jara...


Víctor Jara was a great singer/songwriter. _Canciones póstumas_ is a beautiful album. I hope to the marrow of my bones that Pinochet is burning in hell in utter, eternal agony, right this minute and forever and ever.

I infer from your choices that you must speak Spanish... am I right?

In the rock genre, I'll cast a vote for Joe Jackson. I've always thought that he was one of the best and most underappreciated writers in rock.


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## QuietGuy (Mar 1, 2014)

My favorites are Paul Simon & James Taylor


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Bluecrab said:


> Víctor Jara was a great singer/songwriter. _Canciones póstumas_ is a beautiful album. I hope to the marrow of my bones that Pinochet is burning in hell in utter, eternal agony, right this minute and forever and ever.
> 
> I infer from your choices that you must speak Spanish... am I right?
> 
> In the rock genre, I'll cast a vote for Joe Jackson. I've always thought that he was one of the best and most underappreciated writers in rock.


Yep, hablo Español, but not perfectly (anymore)-grew up in Canada.

And yes, at this moment Pinochet must be wishing he'd never existed.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I was on a Martyn kick several years back. Picked up the deluxe editions of Solid Air and One World, which are great!

I would also recommend Bless The Weather, and Inside Out. The BBC DVD also has a lot of good stuff on it.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I'm on the John Martyn train as well, spent many hours in the seventies listening to him, Richard Thompson and Al Stewart, more recently I've been more geared to American artists like Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt. Shawn Colvin, Kathy Mattea, singe/songwriters on the fringe of country music..

/ptr


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I wish that I'd seen John Martyn live when he was playing with Danny Thompson but I only got to see him for the first time in 1981 when Glorious Fool had just come out. Luckily I saw him in 2006 when he had abandoned the rather slick 80s sound and was backed by an excellent band, bass, keyboards and drums.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Hmmm... maybe...

Robert Johnson
Bruce Cockburn
Travis Meeks


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Morimur said:


> Cash was great. His voice alone made the songs he didn't pen _his_.


I respect and admire Cash, but I would enjoy his music more if he was better at guitar and wrote some stuff that was a little more musically intricate. A good voice only goes so far in my opinion.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

Morimur said:


> My favorites:
> 
> Atahualpa Yupanqui
> Victor Jara
> ...


Yeeeeeeeeeeees!!!!  Yupanqui, Jara, Cafrune and Zitarrosa are my faves songwriters, including Agustín Lara, who doesn't appear in this list. I haven't listening Larralde or Guarany. I have to.


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

Morimur said:


> Had never heard of John Martyn until now-he should have recorded for ECM. Anyway, great songwriter. Do you have the massive 18 CD compilation; 'Island years'? Might add it to my wish list.


No, I don't have it, but it looks great, if a little pricey. If you don't buy it, be sure to get the 'At the BBC' DVD.

An irritating boor in real life, it is incredible how sensitive his songs are.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Wood said:


> No, I don't have it, but it looks great, if a little pricey. If you don't buy it, be sure to get the 'At the BBC' DVD.
> 
> _An irritating boor in real life, it is incredible how sensitive his songs are_.


Reminds me of John Cale's remark about Lou Reed at a time when the claws were out - something along the lines of '...how was it possible that someone who wrote such beautiful songs could be the complete opposite as a person...'. Ouch.


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

Well, that must be Michael Gira from Swans.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Shepard Fairey said:


> Well, that must be Michael Gira from Swans.


I think Gira is a guy with a lot of unrealized artistic potential. He's never moved beyond creating repetitive dirges and crescendos. He has also written some literature which is quite interesting, but again, he's never truly developed his craft, opting instead to do the same thing over and over again.


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

Morimur said:


> I think Gira is a guy with a lot of unrealized artistic potential. He's never moved beyond creating repetitive dirges and crescendos. He has also written some literature which is quite interesting, but again, he's never truly developed his craft, opting instead to do the same thing over an over again.


I agree with you to a certain extent. Swans last albums are boring. I also don't like Michael's side project "The Angels of Light". But, "The Burning World" and "White Light from the Mouth of Infinity" were really, really good albums.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

David Tibet and his chum Douglas P. Also like Bob Dylan.


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## Guest (Nov 28, 2017)

The following should be on this thread:

Karen Dalton
Judee Sill
John Renbourn


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Tim Buckley

I recently purchased the new Complete Albums box, and I'm very impressed. But this box doesn't include his last few albums, which is fine. The great works are here. Happy Sad, Blue Afternoon, Lorca, Starsailor.


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## Jay (Jul 21, 2014)

Peter Hammill.......


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

*The Strange Magic of: Maria McKee*

There is a line in a poem that asks what "jewelled with such eyes the great goshawk's head?" One just needs to look into the hypnotic green eyes of singer-songwriter Maria McKee to have that question flash into one's consciousness. There is a wild, feral quality in her appearance, and even her guitar work has been labelled as feral by some observers. McKee was founder and lead singer for the cowpunk band Lone Justice, and later cowrote and sang Show Me Heaven that featured in the film Days of Thunder. She went solo, and has delivered album after album of wonderful, idiosyncratic songs, that, for no reason that makes any sense to me, never clicked with a larger audience, unlike, say, PJ Harvey, a equally-gifted near-contemporary, equally idiosyncratic. I personally place five women uppermost in my pantheon of exceptional female rock artists: Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, and Maria McKee. Here McKee sings one of her very best: Life is Sweet.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

Beautiful. I advice all of you to listen to the _whole_ song, to get the right impression and enjoy the cowpunk band element as well.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

There are so many great Dutch singer/songwriters but the lyrics are so important I hesitate to post any of their songs.


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I'll try this one...


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## laurie (Jan 12, 2017)

Tom Petty
Bruce Springsteen
Mark Knopfler 
Rickie Lee Jones
Elvis Costello
Lyle Lovett
William Topley


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

starthrower said:


> Tim Buckley
> 
> I recently purchased the new Complete Albums box, and I'm very impressed. But this box doesn't include his last few albums, which is fine. The great works are here. Happy Sad, Blue Afternoon, Lorca, Starsailor.


amazing stuff for sure.


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## Oreb (Aug 8, 2013)

Dylan, first and last.

But also Peter Hammill

Roy Harper

Joni Mitchell

Bruce Cockburn

Rickie Lee Jones

Richard Thompson

I'm also a Springsteen nut, but I don't see him in this genre, really.


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2017)

Buffy Sainte Marie - Native American, try 'Illuminations'.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

Not that she is my favorite artist, but if you're talking about singer/songwriters, I think Carol King has got to be included in the list.


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