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I started this post last summer. I forgot about it but now I have it back. Paste created lots of controversy with this list of 100 living songwriters but I figured it was a good excuse to list some of mine. These are all I can think of off the top of my head. This list is songwriters in the sense of writing words with music. Some of them are more consistent than others but its art who can truely create the same level of consistency all the time? In no particular order: Bruce Hornsby Bruce Cockburn Alejandro Escovedo Neil Young Bob Dylan Talib Kweli Paul Thorn Steve Earle Kim Richey Stevie Wonder William Bell Smokey Robinson Isaac Hayes David Porter Ben Harper David Olney Lucinda Williams Booker T Jones Steve Cropper Warren Haynes Common

Every year something happens that we don't expect. I am only gonna address to musical surprises of 2006. One was very pleasant and the other was mixed. I was glad that I can say it exists for there to even be a surprise. The bad news is the release of " Boxing Mirror " by Alejandro Escovedo . I am so glad Al is around to give us new music. For those who don't know or haven't listened to the record, Al has Hepatitis and he almost died in 2003. We weren't sure if we'd ever get more music from him. He'd suffered a health setback and as a result he suffered a financial setback b/c he, like most working musicians, he didn't have adequate health insurance. So when I say I am glad to have more music I am sincerely happy that this master of lyric and melody is back out there. The part I don't like is the resulting record. I have grown to like the album more than I did when I first bought it but I have major problems with the production & some of t...

Yeah, it's Feb. and most folks aren't thinking about what they loved last year. I am not most folks, I am a master procrastinator. I am not necessarily proud of that fact but I have accepted that it is as much a part of me as my geeky goofiness. Anyway, I have been mulling over my favs of 2006 since December and I am gonna try to put down a few things. Since I watched the Grammies last night I thought we should talk about music first. I found my favorite album of 2006 back in Feb., a whole year ago I predicted this would be the best rock album of the year. I heard a lot more music through the year and I know there was a lot I didn't hear but I have to stick with my first choice. I think song for song this is the classiest, sexiest, most soulful album I heard this year. The album could be easily classified as soul or world music or even jazz but I call it rock because of it's blues base and it's guitar focus...two defining characteristics of rock, as far as I am con...