Some artists just sound like they are telling you something special. When they play their guitar and sing, it’s like they’re looking right at you, staring into your soul, and sharing their deepest, darkest thoughts.
That’s just what we wanted to highlight below. We wanted to dive into the careers of three artists who seem almost mystical. Indeed, these are three songwriters who sound like they’re whispering you a secret.
Videos by American Songwriter
Elliott Smith
Whenever you hear Elliott Smith, it sounds like he’s on a bar stool next to you, five whiskeys deep. He’s surrounded by bar napkins with scribbled lyrics on them. His hair is tossed around his head; it’s greasy. His voice is sweet, soft, but slurring. Then somehow, a recording studio drops down from the sky, and he just starts singing into the microphone, and it’s beautiful. That must be how his albums came together, right? Obviously.
Paul Simon
Whether he was singing folk songs with his childhood friend Art Garfunkel or performing rock music solo, Paul Simon always just seemed like he was your best friend up there on stage. He’s the guy who grew up next door to you, the one you can count on. The person you can depend on. He tells you how it is, what he thinks. He’s also willing to share what’s going on in his life. He doesn’t hold back. As you get to know him, you realize he’s wiser than you first thought. In some ways, it seems, he knows the secrets to life itself. Yes, that’s what his music sounds like.
Joni Mitchell
When Joni Mitchell begins to play, she becomes the song. She is the flickering melodies, the constant rhythms. Her hands are the notes, her tongue the ellipsis. The breath in her work is the kind of stuff that revives even the most worn-out soul. You can easily imagine her rushing through the door. It’s fall—almost winter—outside. She’s still wearing her coat. She sits down with an acoustic that had been leaning against a stool. She starts to sing, and suddenly you realize there is blood in your veins. That’s her secret.
Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
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Singer, songwriter and guitarist Don Barnes of .38 Special is shown performing on stage during a "live" concert appearance on June 26, 1994. (Photo by John Atashian/Getty Images) -
American country and western singer and musician Johnny Cash (1932 – 2003) performs on stage at the Painters Mill Music Far in Owing Mills, Maryland, September 29, 1977. He is strumming a guitar and standing in front of a microphone. Bassist Marshall Grant (1928 – 2011) of Cashs backing band The Tennessee Three plays behind him on the right. (Photo by Leffler/Library of Congress/Interim Archives/Getty Images) -
Seminal American rock group The Byrds consisted originally of Jim (Roger) McGuinn, born 1942, David Crosby, born 1941, Michael Clark, born 1944, Chris Hillman, born 1944 and Gene Clark, born 1941. Their folk and pyschedelic tinged music was popular and influential during the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
