Songcraft: Spotlight on Songwriters

Canadian singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mars Bonfire began his professional music career with the Sparrows, a 1960s rock group that eventually morphed into the band Steppenwolf. Though he’d departed by the time they released their first album, Steppenwolf made Bonfire’s “Born to be Wild” a massive hit in 1968. The song was prominently used in the film Easy Rider the following year, cementing its place as a classic American anthem of free-spirited rebellion. The lyrics introduced the term “heavy metal” to the music world, and Rolling Stone magazine named “Born to be Wild” one of the Top 500 Songs of All Time. Steppenwolf went on to record five additional Bonfire compositions, including “Faster Than the Speed of Life” and “Ride With Me.” All Music called Mars’s 1968 self-titled psychedelic solo album a “lost masterpiece,” and in 2015 he was honored with the first ever Cultural Impact Award given by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada. In addition to Steppenwolf, Mars Bonfire’s music has been covered by Alice Cooper, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, The Cult, Crowded House, INXS, U2, Bruce Springsteen, and others.   

Known as a respected “songwriter’s songwriter,” Jim Lauderdale is a versatile and highly prolific artist who is equally comfortable writing country, bluegrass, soul, or pop. His 1991 debut, Planet of Love, was packed with original songs that went on to be covered by George Strait, The Dixie Chicks, Gary Allan, Lucinda Williams, Mandy Barnett, and others. Since then, Lauderdale has recorded nearly thirty albums, including the Grammy winning releases Lost in the Lonesome Pines and The Bluegrass Diaries. Patty Loveless has recorded five of his songs, including the Top 10 single “Halfway Down” and her hit duet with George Jones, “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me.” Likewise, George Strait has covered well over a dozen Jim Lauderdale compositions, including the Top 5 hits “We Really Shouldn’t Be Doing This,” “What Do You Say to That,” and “I Gotta Get to You.” Others who have recorded Jim’s songs include Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, Tracy Nelson, Shelby Lynne, Vince Gill, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Blake Shelton, Gary Allan, Lee Ann Womack, and Solomon Burke. In addition to his Grammy wins, Jim took home both the Song of the Year and Artist of the Year honors at the 2002 Americana Music Association Awards. In 2015 he was honored by the National Music Council – alongside Kris Kristofferson and Charley Pride – for his “long-term contribution to America’s musical culture and heritage.”

Arkansas native spent his formative years playing in a jazz band with future President Bill Clinton, before going on to write a ton of #1 pop and adult contemporary hits, including Michael Johnson’s “Bluer Than Blue,” Steve Perry’s “Foolish Heart,” Toto’s “I’ll Be Over You,” El DeBarge’s “Who’s Holdin’ Donna Now,” and Anne Murray’s “You Needed Me,” which earned Goodrum a Grammy nomination and became the ACM Song of the Year.   Additionally, he wrote Chicago’s “If She Would Have Been Faithful,” Steve Perry’s “Oh Sherrie,” and “A Lesson in Leavin’,” which was a #1 country hit for both Dottie West and Jo Dee Messina. In 1981 Randy won six ASCAP awards in a single year and was named ASCAP country songwriter of the year. His music has been recorded by Gladys Knight, Reba McEntire, Ray Charles, Michael McDonald, Al Jarreau, Chet Atkins, Natalie Cole, The Commodores, Kansas, Dusty Springfield, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Michael Bolton, Isaac Hayes, Tammy Wynette, and many others. Goodrum was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000.

Long before Little Big Town took her song “Girl Crush” to the #1 spot on the Billboard country chart for a record-breaking thirteen consecutive weeks in 2014, Lori McKenna established herself as a highly respected singer/songwriter on the Boston-area folk scene. She recorded four independent albums in the late 1990s and early 2000s before country superstar Faith Hill released her versions of four of Lori’s songs in 2005. The pair appeared together on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and McKenna soon signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records. After releasing the Top 20 country album Unglamorous in 2007, she returned to her folk roots with the critically acclaimed independent albums Lorraine, Massachusetts, and Numbered Doors. McKenna has expertly balanced both her career as an emotionally evocative musical poet and consistent mainstream success as a commercial songwriter. Her songs have been recorded by Sara Evans, Tim McGraw, Mandy Moore, Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, Ashley Monroe, Hunter Hayes, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, and others. Fiercely devoted to her husband and five children, McKenna still lives in her small hometown of Stoughton, Massachusetts. She has famously described herself as “just a housewife from Stoughton who likes to write songs.” But those songs have earned her multiple Boston Music Awards, a half dozen Top 40 singles, and Song of the Year honors from the Nashville Songwriters Association, International and, most recently, the Country Music Association. 

After a successful career in commercial real estate, Tom Douglas scored his first charting single as a songwriter when Collin Raye took "Little Rock" to the top of the charts in 1994. "Little Rock" earned Tom a CMA Song of the Year nomination and marked the start of a long string of Top 10 singles that has stretched for more than two decades. His catalog of hits includes "The Gift" for Jim Brickman; "Love's the Only House" and "God's Will" for Martina McBride; "Grown Men Don't Cry," "My Little Girl," "Let it Go," "Southern Voice," and "Meanwhile Back at Mama's" for Tim McGraw; "Something Worth Leaving Behind" for Lee Ann Womack; "I Run to You" and "Hello World" for Lady Antebellum; "I Got a Car" for George Strait; "Raise 'Em Up" for Keith Urban and Eric Church; and Miranda Lambert's recording of "The House That Built Me," which was nominated for two Grammy awards, and won Song of the Year honors from the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International. Additionally, his songs have been recorded by Alabama, Garth Brooks, Bucky Covington, Blake Shelton, Randy Travis, Brooks & Dunn, Trisha Yearwood, Kenny Chesney, Brett Eldredge, Luke Bryan, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, and many others. Nearly a dozen of Tom's songs have won BMI performance awards; he is a Golden Globe and Oscar nominee; he has been nominated for four Grammy awards; and he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014.  

Though a prolific singer/songwriter in his own right, Chip Taylor’s music has been covered by a wide range of artists, including Fats Domino, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Johnny Cash, George Strait, Nina Simone, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, The Pretenders, Jackie DeShannon, Ronnie Spector, Cheap Trick, and many others. He has written 39 songs that have appeared on Billboard’s pop, R&B, country, or adult contemporary charts, with many of them appearing on multiple charts simultaneously. Chip was born James Wesley Voight in Yonkers, New York, He joined a country band in high school, started writing songs, and signed a contract with King Records while still a teenager. As a songwriter he began finding success in the early 1960s with recordings by Johnny Tillotson, Aretha Franklin, and Willie Nelson. In 1966 The Troggs took Taylor’s “Wild Thing” to the #1 spot, which caught the attention of Jimi Hendrix, who covered it the following year. In 1968 he wrote “Angel of the Morning,” which became a hit for several artists, including Merilee Rush and Juice Newton. Chip also wrote “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder),” best known for the version Janis Joplin recorded in 1970. As the decade progressed he found continued success in the country field with Waylon Jennings’ Top 10 hit “Sweet Dream Woman,” and Anne Murray’s Top 5 “Son of a Rotten Gambler.” He returned to the studio as an artist in the early 1970s, and his LP Chip Taylor’s Last Chance, was named one of the best albums of the year by Rolling Stone magazine. Chip eventually left the music business behind, spending the 1980s as a highly successful professional gambler. He returned to the recording studio once again in the mid-1990s, and remains as prolific as ever, releasing an average of at least one album per year.

Growing up in Greenwich Village, New York, John Sebastian cut his teeth on American roots music. He formed the Lovin’ Spoonful in the mid-1960s, blending folk, blues, country, rock, and pop to create a string of seven consecutive Top 10 hits, including “Do You Believe in Magic,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” “Daydream,” “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind,” Summer in the City,” Rain on the Roof,” and “Nashville Cats.” Each of them was written or co-written by Sebastian, and two of his compositions - “Summer in the City” and “Do You Believe in Magic”- are listed in Rolling Stone magazine’s ranking of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” In 1976 he scored a #1 solo hit with “Welcome Back,” the theme song to the popular TV show Welcome Back Kotter. He has continued to create engaging roots-oriented sounds with his celebrated J-Band. The Lovin’ Spoonful was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and Sebastian became a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2008. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, B.B. King, Sarah Vaughan, Quincy Jones, John Mellencamp, Dolly Parton, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, the Everly Brothers, Isaac Hayes, Flatt & Scruggs, Art Garfunkel, the Bee Gees, The Mamas and the Papas, Bell and Sebastian, Rumer, and many others.

Find a Way to Care is John Mayall’s 64th official album, and the most recent release from the 81-year-old singer, keyboardist, guitarist, harmonica player, and composer who’s been dubbed the “Godfather of British Blues.” The Grammy-nominated Mayall is a renowned band leader, with several veterans of his group, the Bluesbreakers, going on to find success in their own right. A short list of those who passed through his band includes Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, who went on to form Cream; Peter Green, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood, who later formed Fleetwood Mac; Andy Fraser, who formed Free; and Mick Taylor, who went on to join the Rolling Stones. Other notable guitarists who’ve spent time in Mayall’s band include Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, Sonny Landreth, Buddy Whittington, and former Canned Heat member Harvey Mandel. Between 1966 and 1971 Mayall released eleven albums that hit the Top 40 on the UK chart, three of which also reached the Top 40 on the Billboard chart in the U.S. Though he has covered songs by many of his heroes, Mayall’s albums have relied primarily on original material. His own compositions have been recorded by a range of artists, including Richie Havens, Georgie Fame, Them, Mott the Hoople, Dion & the Belmonts, Motorhead, Joe Bonamassa, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Uriah Heep, and the duo of Eric Burdon and Jimmy Witherspoon. Mayall’s album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton appears on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” and he was named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the Queen of England in 2005. BB King once said, “John Mayall, he was the master of it. If it wasn't for the British musicians, a lot of us black musicians in America would still be catchin' the hell that we caught long before."

Part 2 of 2: Hailing from Lubbock, Texas, Mac Davis began his music career working for Vee Jay Records and Liberty Records in Atlanta. Relocating to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, he became a staff songwriter for Nancy Sinatra’s music publishing company. His early songwriting success came when Elvis Presley recorded several of his songs, including “A Little Less Conversation,” “Memories,” “Clean Up Your Own Backyard,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” and “In the Ghetto.” Soon his songs were being recorded by O.C. Smith, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Glen Campbell, Ray Price, and Bobby Goldsboro, who enjoyed a major hit with Mac’s “Watching Scotty Grow” in 1971. Thanks to his success as a songwriter, Davis signed an artist deal with Columbia Records, and later Casablanca Records, scoring thirty-three charting singles between 1970 and 1986. Most of those hits were written by Davis himself, including “I Believe in Music,” “One Hell of a Woman,” “Stop and Smell the Roses,” “It’s Hard to be Humble,” “Texas in My Rearview,” “Hooked on Music,” “You’re My Bestest Friend,” and the Grammy-nominated #1 pop hit, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me.” He was named both the the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year in 1974, hosted his own NBC variety show from 1974 through 1976, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000, and joined the national Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006. He’s a three-time Grammy nominee with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he continues to write, most recently collaborating with - and having his songs recorded by - Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, Bruno Mars, and Avicii. 

Part 1 of 2: Hailing from Lubbock, Texas, Mac Davis began his music career working for Vee Jay Records and Liberty Records in Atlanta. Relocating to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, he became a staff songwriter for Nancy Sinatra’s music publishing company. His early songwriting success came when Elvis Presley recorded several of his songs, including “A Little Less Conversation,” “Memories,” “Clean Up Your Own Backyard,” “Don’t Cry Daddy,” and “In the Ghetto.” Soon his songs were being recorded by O.C. Smith, Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Glen Campbell, Ray Price, and Bobby Goldsboro, who enjoyed a major hit with Mac’s “Watching Scotty Grow” in 1971. Thanks to his success as a songwriter, Davis signed an artist deal with Columbia Records, and later Casablanca Records, scoring thirty-three charting singles between 1970 and 1986. Most of those hits were written by Davis himself, including “I Believe in Music,” “One Hell of a Woman,” “Stop and Smell the Roses,” “It’s Hard to be Humble,” “Texas in My Rearview,” “Hooked on Music,” “You’re My Bestest Friend,” and the Grammy-nominated #1 pop hit, “Baby Don’t Get Hooked on Me.” He was named both the the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year in 1974, hosted his own NBC variety show from 1974 through 1976, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2000, and joined the national Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006. He’s a three-time Grammy nominee with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he continues to write, most recently collaborating with - and having his songs recorded by - Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, Bruno Mars, and Avicii.