For the Sake of the Song
Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 02:47PM 
Texas Monthly senior editor John Spong interviewed five songwriters for the August issue. Read it here. Despite our differing opinions over the merits of 70s Jimmy Buffett, (Living & Dying in 3/4 Time more than makes up for the Alan Jackson duets,) Spong and I are friends. He knows his music and the collected songwriters are solid— Patty Griffin, Robert Earl Keen, Jack Ingram, Sonny Throckmorton, and Guy Clark.
Songwriting is a tough business. I once traveled from Nashville publishing house to publishing house with a guitar case of tunes. A business exec in a suit would sit behind a large wooden desk and listen as I played my stuff. It was awkward, to say the least. I was advised to listen to Mongtomery Gentry and write stuff "that made ordinary folks feel better about their crappy lives". I left Nashville.
These guys (and gal) stuck it out. Their insight into the process and business of writing songs is interesting.
In a recent interview, Bob Dylan cited Guy Clark as one of his favorite songwriters alongside Warren Zevon, Randy Newman, Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine, and, ahem, Jimmy Buffett. The ragged voiced seer also gives a shout-out to Texas songwriters on his latest record Together Through Life with the track 9 line, "I've been listening to Billy Joe Shaver and reading James Joyce." Trying to understand a Dylan live show is like trying to read Finnegan's Wake. It rarely makes sense but you know what he means.