Singer-songwriters

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

I love singer-songwriters. They seem to be the one thing in music that crosses international boundaries. Just some person with a guitar (or piano), and their voice, which they then use to pour their heart out.

Let's discuss our favorites, as well as an example of their work.

I'll start with my personal favorite, Neil Young.

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This is "Southern Man", a song from his album After The Gold Rush. It's subject matter is...pretty obvious.

On a sidenote, this is the song that inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd to record "Sweet Home Alabama".

......I'm not really a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

[Os Cangaceiros]

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Only half-joking about that example. I'm not really into solo acts that much, but I really like that song, and I think that GG Allin, even though he was a horrible person (something he'd undoubtedly agree with me about) was one of the most genuine musical artists out there, in terms of living the life he sang about. He had a really terrible life and the vast majority of his work is nearly unlistenable, but he had some real talent IMO, it can be heard on his earliest work...when I was a teenager I made a compilation album of his first record with the Jabbers and the "Public Animal Number 1" EP, and I listened to that constantly, great pop-punk music. Here's a good example of what I mean, listen to that awesome skittery bassline:

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[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Here's a more recent example:

Tom Morello in his singer-songwriter persona, The Nightwatchman.

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I think its a credit to his talent that he was able to switch from hard rock guitar god to acoustic troubador with very little effort. He actually a great singing voice as well as guitar chops.

[Comrades Unite!]

I will state the underrated Irish-man ... Rory Gallagher!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_VBi53CROE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK0T-fVVFhc

[Hit The North]

Wasn't Rory Gallagher more of a shit-hot blues guitarist rather than a singer-songwriter?

Imo, Dylan is the greatest s-sw of the Twentieth Century.

[tachosomoza]

I love singer songwriters. Paul Simon, Jim Croce, Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Tracy Chapman are my favorites.

[Comrades Unite!]

Wasn't Rory Gallagher more of a shit-hot blues guitarist rather than a singer-songwriter?

Imo, Dylan is the greatest s-sw of the Twentieth Century.

He was indeed a shit-hot guitarist but much of his albums contain singer songwriter material especially his album 'Deuce'.

Youtube is acting up for me again so I can't post a link but look up Rory Gallagher - I'm not awake yet and also Don't know where I'm going.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Here's another one of my favorites.

Tom Waits.

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This is "Downtown Train", probably the closest thing to a pop song he's ever recorded. It's also the subject of the (in)famously popular cover by Rod Stewart, which sucks.

I LOVE Tom Waits, but he is definitely one of the most divisive musicians. It's all in his voice: You either love it or hate it.

(though granted, his voice wasn't always that rough).

[tallguy]

I've never really listened to Tom Waites. But, after listening to that track you posted, I have gone and listened to some of his other stuff. He's damned good. I don't know how he went under my radar.

[Bostana]

Call me a cliche but Kurt Cobain is my favorite:
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It's an anti-rape song based on a 14 year old girl who was kidnapped after a rock concert and tortured and raped. She was able to gain his trust by pretending she liked it. She was able to escape when he let her out and she made a big scene to get people attention

[Niall]

Does Springsteen count? For me there is none better

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

When it comes to singer/songwriters I know a lot of people who would say "Nick Drake" which is fair enough, I love his music and I find his lyrics unfortunately relateable. However, it seems there was another musical talent in the Drake family - and one that personally I do prefer to listen to. It turns out that his mother, Molly Drake, used to write songs and record them on tape at home on piano. They only came to light several years after her death - and listening to them, it's easy to draw parallells between the musical styles of mother and son.

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[Turinbaar]

My friend and I play this song at our gigs

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[DoCt SPARTAN]

Ryan Harvey is one of my favorite Revolutionary folk singers besides Dylan (who I was named after.)