Favorite (song)writers

The rest of the band is brilliant. Almost all of them are multi-instrumentalists and, as much as I love Shane's songs, some of my favorite Pogue's songs are written by other band members.

I finally saw them in concert a few years ago and was incredibly excited. It was such a letdown. Shane was a mess and completely unintelligible.

But, he would leave the stage every few songs and allow another band member to sing lead on a song they had written. And, they were terrific.

I'd always wanted to see the Pogues with Shane. Now, I'd actually like to see a concert of their without him.

 

It's hard to pick just one verse from some songwriters so I'll just list a bunch I like as songwriters and as musicians...

Bruce Springsteen
Bob Dylan
Rod Picott (definitely check out his most recent album Welding Burns... specifically Rust Belt Fields, 410, Sheetrock Hanger, Jealous Heart, and the title track)
Slaid Cleaves
Tift Merritt
Amanda Shires
John Fogerty

plus a lot more...

 

James McMurtry. Check out "Choctaw Bingo," "We Can't Make It Here Anymore" and "Childish Things" if you haven't heard of him before. Hands down the best songwriter out there today. His father is Larry McMurtry, author of the "Lonesome Dove" series.

Totally agree with the DBT trio of Isbell (although former member, but GDLL is a masterpiece), Hood and the man, the myth, the legend in Cooley ("Cartoon Gold" and "Love Like This" are flawless).

Some others:
Robert Earl Keen
Ben Nichols (Lucero, that dude knows about drunk heartache)
Jagger/Richards
Jay Farrar
Chris/Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes)
The Band (although Robbie Robertson took all the credit, hate that guy's fucking guts. So glad he is exposed as a worthless hack with his solo stuff. Rock on Levon).
Dan Aurebach/Patrick Carney (The Black Keys)
Ryan Bingham (check him out if you haven't already)
Steve Earle
Jeff Tweedy

 

I would have bet money you would be the first to mention Joe Ely. Not only weren't you first, you didn't even mention him.

 

Matraca Berg
Paul Overstreet
Don Schlitz
Beth Nielsen Chapman
Holland-Dozier-Holland

 

Huggy saw the thread a few hours before I did and I knew I'd forget some hence my "plus a lot more.." comment.
Although Ely's written some great stuff, a handful of the songs I love by him are just covers of others -- If You Were a Bluebird, Road Goes on Forever, Gallo Del Ciego, Oh Boy, to name a few.

 

Neil Diamond and Prince.
Seriously.

 

Cole Porter
Paul Simon
Bob Dylan
Bruce Springsteen
David Gray
Ben Folds

 

Robert Hunter
Jimmy Buffett (pre 1995)

 

That's true. Some of my favorite songs by him are covers.

In concert, he does a version of Billy Joe Shaver's I'm Going to Live Forever, that's just beautiful, and sad as hell.

Edit: here it is:

Here's another version with Joe & Joel Guzman. Saw them together last year. Another great version:

 

I was thinking early Buffett as well. Love songs like "Incommunicado" and "Come Monday".

 

Chris Martin
The duo of Tom Chaplin and Tim Oxley-Rice
Gordie Sampson