And the Winner Is . . .

A friend and former student of mine just posed a question on Facebook: Who is the best songwriter of the last twenty years?

I've been thinking about this for three days and it's difficult to say -- not because I haven't liked any songs in the last twenty years, but because I'm not sure that I can think of a lot of actual songwriters who have written over that period, outside of the established ones (like Elton John, who is doing some of his best work ever, even though there is not a lot of buzz about it).

What it comes down to, for me, is that there are three kinds of people who put together songs.

A Noble Cliché

There's nothing cool in this groove.

There's nothing new to what I'm sayin'.

But sometimes, the truth is what it is.

~ Jon McLaughlin: "Until You Got Love"

The other day, a woman behind the counter at a convenience store asked me, "How are you today?"

"Good -- how are you?" I replied, somewhat unconvincingy, I'm sure. I may have even sounded a little rude.

If I had answered honestly, I would have said, "Well, I feel a little like I might have a heart attack. I nearly burst into tears three times in the car just now and I'm a grown man. In fact, this is one of the worst days of my life. I've been suffering for half a week with a kind of ache I've never known."