This week, the New York Times published a list of its 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters, the sort of list designed and destined to inspire endless, hand-wringing debate. I could, as a former longtime music journalist and dedicated listener, pull apart the Times list (some of which I loved, some of which I hated, some of which inspired yawns).
But rather than argue, I decided to engage in a thought exercise. Note: thought exercise, not overthinking exercise.
In the span of less than 30 minutes, I jotted down who I believe to be my 30 favorite living songwriters (American or not)—and 10 more for good measure. I could tell you of a few, slight internal rules that governed my tally. But all that would be an effort to stave off argument or critique, when all I want is to celebrate writers I love and perhaps instigate similar instincts in you.
Neko Case
Here, then, is a quick-and-dirty list of my 30 favorite living songwriters (arranged alphabetically) with accompanying playlist below:
Fiona Apple
What I love: Apple’s signature fusion of anxiety, daring melodies, twitchy rhythms and self-government.
Favorite tracks: “Fast As You Can,” “Shadowboxer,” “Under the Table”
David Bazan
What I love: Whether leading Pedro the Lion or under his own name, perhaps no songwriter has better defined (and blurred) the tension I personally know between faith and doubt, righteous anger and a question of what righteousness looks like in the first place.
Favorite tracks: “In Stitches,” “Foregone Conclusions,” “Suspect Fled the Scene,”
Sam Beam
What I love: The voice behind Iron & Wine takes up the mantle of the modern troubadour, with all the sensitivity and weirdness that title implies.
Favorite tracks: “About a Bruise,” “Naked as We Came,” “Resurrection Fern”
Matt Berninger
What I love: The bard at the front of The National’s stage writes anxiety inside-out and outside-in.
Favorite tracks: “Afraid of Everyone,” “Graceless,” “Slow Show”
Neko Case
What I love: A deity among modern songwriters, the Divine Ms. Case conveys the soul of a Romantic poet while forever thinking and re-thinking her way through the world laid out before her.
Favorite tracks: “Last Lion of Albion,” “Night Still Comes,” “This Tornado Loves You”
Tyler Childers
What I love: Childers both challenges and fulfills the conventions of country music.
Favorite tracks: “Lady May,” “Nose on the Grindstone, “Oneida”
Elvis Costello
What I love: Wry and sharp, Costello often sings like the smartest man in the room—albeit with a tenuous grasp on his own sense of self.
Favorite tracks: “Alison,” “Every Day I Write the Book,” “Watching the Detectives”
Lucy Dacus
What I love: As a solo artist and 1/3 of Boygenius, Dacus’ songs qualify as some of the best short stories of the young century.
Favorite tracks: “Night Shift,” “Thumbs,” “VBS”
Dessa
What I love: A true Renaissance woman (rapper, singer, poet, essayist, etc.), Dessa’s work goes down smooth but challenges our preconceptions at every turn.
Favorite tracks: “Fire Drills,” “Hurricane Party,” “I Already Like You”
Bob Dylan
What I love: Yeah, this is a chalk pick, but c’mon. An American icon.
Favorite tracks: “Mississippi,” “Most of the Time,” “Visions of Johanna”
Phil Elverum
What I love: While the Mount Eerie mastermind’s songs sometimes defy traditional melodicism, few write as nakedly—or do as much with atmosphere—as Elverum.
Favorite tracks: “I Hold Nothing,” “My Chasm,” “Wind and Fog, Pt. 2”
Father John Misty
What I love: The songwriter born Josh Tillman faces you like a cynic, then reaches in for a human touch—all while building and toppling his own myths.
Favorite tracks: “Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins),” “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings,” “She Cleans Up”
Ben Folds
What I love: Founder of the groundbreaking Ben Folds Five and a solo artist extraordinaire, Folds has honed a bittersweet lyrical style that perfectly overlays his genius piano-pop songcraft.
Favorite tracks: “Don’t Change Your Plans for Me,” “Not the Same,” “Wandering”
Howe Gelb
What I love: Desert-dry humor and keen insight mark the vast catalog of the Giant Sand bandleader and Tucson, Arizona’s truest poetd.
Favorite tracks: “Carinito,” “Forever and a Day,” “Man on a String”
Taylor Goldsmith
What I love: I’ve never heard anyone take the deepest thoughts and make them seem so cool and easy to think like the Dawes bandleader.
Favorite tracks: “Crack the Case,” “Something in Common,” “When My Time Comes”
Jason Isbell
What I love: From Drive-By Truckers to an accomplished solo career, few songwriters have realized their potential like Isbell, who writes toward a new South (as well as North, East and West) marked by painful honesty and healing compassion.
Favorite tracks: “24 Frames,” “Alabama Pines,” “Decoration Day”
Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster
What I love: One-half (with Andrew Bryant) of the remarkable songwriting duo that occasionally still is Water Liars, and an accomplished solo artist, Kinkel-Schuster’s songs host the ghosts of the great Southern novelists while unspooling his own story in what always sounds like real time.
Favorite tracks: “Fake Heat,” “Linens,” “Swannanoa”
Kendrick Lamar
What I love: The Pulitzer-winning MC houses all the best qualities of our documentarians and our poets.
Favorite tracks: “The Heart Part 5,” “Humble,” “u”
Jenny Lewis
What I love: Lewis is our queen at writing songs about meeting—and beating—men at their own game.
Favorite tracks: “Portions for Foxes,” “Puppy and a Truck,” “Rise Up With Fists!!”
Lyle Lovett
What I love: No one writes with ten-gallon tenderness like the Texan.
Favorite tracks: “My Baby Don’t Tolerate,” “The Road to Ensenada,” “This Old Porch”
Rhett Miller
What I love: The Old 97s leader and solo rocker owns an unparalleled sense of melodicism that splits the difference between country and pop, lover-man bravado and tucked-in anxiety.
Favorite tracks: “I Need to Know Where I Stand,” “My Two Feet,” “Salome”
Meshell Ndegeocello
What I love: A dervish dancing through soul, jazz, hip-hop and classical influences, Ndegeocello’s voice sounds ancient and modern at once.
Favorite tracks: “Bitter,” “I’m Diggin’ You — Like an Old Soul Record,” “Weather”
Open Mike Eagle
What I love: The artist’s ability to distill deep social justice issues—and delightful layers of personal and pop-cultural nostalgia—into wise yet conversational hip-hop.
Favorite tracks: “almost broke my nucleus accumbens,” “My Auntie’s Building,” “Daydreaming in the Projects,”
Josh Ritter
What I love: I once said of a dear writer friend that he does the work of a fighter by being a lover. I recognize the same approach in Ritter’s tunes.
Favorite tracks: “Girl in the War,” “I Still Love You (Now and Then),” “Kathleen”
Paul Simon
What I love: No one bends a phrase, lyrically or melodically, like Simon.
Favorite tracks: “Born at the Right Time,” “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” “The Only Living Boy in New York”
Bruce Springsteen
What I love: He’s just, really and truly, the Boss.
Favorite tracks: “Because the Night,” “Brilliant Disguise,” “Thunder Road”
Jeff Tweedy
What I love: Leader of my favorite American band (Wilco) and now a prolific solo writer, Tweedy keeps delving deep into the madness and method of Midwestern life.
Favorite tracks: “Handshake Drugs,” “Reservations,” “You Are My Face”
Tom Waits
What I love: No one writes (or delivers) a sad-bastard song like Tom Waits.
Favorite tracks: “Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis,” “I Hope That I Don’t Fall In Love With You,” “Tom Traubert’s Blues”
Gillian Welch
What I love: Welch’s ability to blend into the traditions of songwriting while sounding her own unique voice.
Favorite tracks: “Empty Trainload of Sky,” “Look at Miss Ohio,” “The Way It Goes”
Lucinda Williams
What I love: A Southern rock poet laureate, Williams writes like she sings, seamless in her blend of grit and grace.
Favorite tracks: “Honey Bee,” “Passionate Kisses,” “Righteously”
10 Honorable Mentions Whose Work I Dearly Love:
Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee); McKinley Dixon; Adam Duritz (Counting Crows); Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent (Shovels and Rope, pictured); Tyler Jordan (Good Looks); Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief, solo work); Lydia Loveless; Kevin Morby; Maggie Rogers; and Amanda Shires.