I came along with that crowd of singer-songwriters who were able to make their own statements in such a personal way that it changed the industry: Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Sly and the Family Stone.
Al Jarreau
When I'm outside gardening, it can be so inspiring. I think of words and melodies. It's peaceful. Every singer-songwriter should find something outside of music that makes them as happy as gardening makes me.
Amanda Shires
The way I work, I'm not a confessional singer-songwriter.
Andrew Bird
I think the '60s and '70s were the peak period for the singer-songwriter, for sure.
Andrew Gold
I'm a singer-songwriter, but we get loud and we jump around. We have dance moves; we freak out. It's really fun, man!
Andy Grammer
Very unique: I was a singer-songwriter-guitarist. Very unusual in the late Seventies to find a singer-songwriter, and on top of that, a guitarist.
Andy Kindler
Less is more' may be a cliche, but that doesn't mean musicians often heed that advice. Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson, who performs and records as The Tallest Man on Earth, follows it religiously.
Anthony Fantano
On 'Kaputt,' singer-songwriter Dan Bejar reevaluates his band's sound and drifts away from the David Bowie comparisons that have plagued even his best albums.
I was always a wannabe 'singer-songwriter' but nothing was happening. I was trying for albums. I was too afraid to quit my job for nothing. But my friends kept on encouraging me. I kept on writing songs. My first hit was probably my 150th song.
Anupam Roy
I'm not just a singer-songwriter doing songs in the key of me.
Arlo Guthrie
I think Everclear is a weird combination of a singer-songwriter and a hard-rock band. That's why some people really dig the band, and some don't.
Art Alexakis
A lot of people do not like singer-songwriters, and a lot of people who like them do not like hard rock. It's either-or.
As a singer-songwriter I definitely think I push the mould a lot.
Ben Howard
I've always thought I crossed this really weird gap between the pop world and some slightly more left-field singer-songwriter music, but everyone's always comparing me with Ed Sheeran. It's frustrating.
On piano, I tend to write either gospel or singer-songwriter songs, sometimes kind of rocking blues songs. But the more heavier rock stuff I will write on bass.
Beth Hart
As a singer-songwriter, what I do is write about how the human feels.
Bjork
I love being a very personal singer-songwriter, but I also like being a scientist or explorer.
I was in Ann Arbor, and I was told that this singer-songwriter guy wanted to meet me. It was Kurt Cobain. Nirvana had just made 'Bleach.' Kurt interviewed me on a college radio station. It was very strange. He was a fan of mine, and he gave me his album.
Bobcat Goldthwait
I'm sure I would have been considered a more significant artist if I was a singer-songwriter. It's just not the way I roll. I love being a curator and a musicologist. People write me letters and thank me for turning them on to Fred McDowell and Sippie Wallace, and that's partly my job this time around.
Bonnie Raitt
People want things that address their everyday reality, and that goes for stuff that isn't political - with singer-songwriter music, people want things that touch them.
Boots Riley
Yeah, I always listen to both classic and newer folk-influenced music. Singer-songwriter, alternative music. I also listen to more experimental dance music.
I'm a singer-songwriter. So I play guitar, and I sing. Along the lines of, I guess you could call it, alternative rock.
When you label something a singer-songwriter record, you cover many genres.
I'm definitely a singer-songwriter. I'm somewhere in the vein between Elliott Smith and Jack Johnson.
I feel like fans who like old Southern rock and country, and more lyric-driven songs in general, have come to country radio. I think that's why you see country radio growing and albums selling: People are craving a little more of the singer-songwriter stuff going on in country.
2017 saw a slew of big pop and hip-hop records, a number of breakout female singer-songwriters and all-girl bands, and the return of beloved '60s soul artist Don Bryant and pop star Kesha.
I think, definitely, I was hugely influenced by - obviously like Adele and Florence the Machine. They were my complete idols growing up. But also, there were a lot of influences from my dad, like singer-songwriters of the '70s like Carole King and James Taylor.
For a lot of pop performers, fame and celebrity is part of the job. But for singer-songwriters, no one really cares.
When people say the words 'singer-songwriter,' I think they have an image in their heads of someone with an acoustic guitar who is a bit woe-is-me. I'd like to think that I'm not one of those. I'm quite a happy person.
I love it when people refer to me as a singer-songwriter. I get flutters in my stomach because they say, 'This is Grace VanderWaal, singer-songwriter,' not, 'This is Grace VanderWaal, winner of 'America's Got Talent.'' I'm so proud of that; it's such a big chapter of my life. But it's nice to kind of not be known as just that.
That's part of it: You can't be a country singer-songwriter if you've never had an official heartbreak.
I was playing a singer-songwriter, so I started writing, and I started going up to different places around Los Angeles and reading poetry of my own, which terrified me, but I had to do it. I picked up a guitar and started learning guitar.
If I were not a black artist but I was still singing, playing guitar, and singing ballads that are spiritual and cerebral, I'd be easier to market because people accept that from white female singer-songwriters faster.
Dean Owens is Scotland's most engaging and haunting singer-songwriter.
I was kind of a sideman. Then I became kind of a singer-songwriter.
I appreciate a lot of singer-songwriters that the normal person doesn't, but I feel like everyone thoroughly enjoys an Ed Sheeran show.
I think that I'm a powerful female, a young singer-songwriter with an energy that's not really been done before. I think that's what people need to know about, you know.
As a singer-songwriter, a solo artist with a guitar, I can only write so many weepie little bedroom songs.
It's bad to be labeled just another singer-songwriter.
I don't think I was ever designed to be a ubiquitous worldwide star. I'm a singer-songwriter writing quite personal songs. You're not supposed to chuck me on a stage with bells and whistles. There was a struggle ahead after that happened, and perhaps I was trying to write songs to compete in that arena.
I don't like the idea of a singer-songwriter record. I don't picture myself that way, and it's not my favorite sort of look, I guess. It's really just an aesthetic thing.
I'm not a big songwriter guy. People who are really good singer-songwriters usually left me kind of cold.
When I started out, I wanted to be Billy Joel. The plan was to be a singer-songwriter of that ilk, and, then, I got waylaid - that's probably an unfair way to say it - from being a rock star by the musical theatre stuff, which I love doing.
One of my favorite artists is Tom Waits, whom most people think of as a wonderful singer-songwriter and a great poet. I certainly think of him that way, but I also know him as a terrific actor. You know, that persona that he puts on when he's doing his music comes from being an actor, figuring out a persona.
My mother had a great vinyl collection, and she was constantly playing female singer-songwriters. I first learned about classic song structures by listening to them, and Laura Nyro particularly stood out. Her voice was outside what you'd usually hear on the radio; that really appealed to me.
I never intended to set out and be a singer-songwriter. I just sort of became one because I put out my own record.
I really want to be just a singer-songwriter. That's who I am.
And that's the kind of thing people think, you know, that if you sign up to be a singer-songwriter you know how to deal with people setting up hate websites, or people being obsessed with you and crying when you touch them, but you don't, and you just have to deal with.
I've had mentors who were kind of the troubadour singer-songwriters, like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and that's just what I've always liked - people who would talk real honestly about their lives and their circumstance.
I think I'm different from a lot of singer-songwriters because some of my favorite singer-songwriters told stories. Like John Prine.
