Songcraft: Spotlight On Songwriters

Emerging from Brooklyn in the late 1990s, Talib Kweli has carved out a reputation as a gifted lyricist and has been called “one of this generation’s most poetic MCs” by AllMusic.com. A prolific collaborator, he is a member of multiple duos, including Reflection Eternal with DJ Hi-Teck, Black Star with Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def), and Idle Warship with vocalist Res. He has placed seven releases in the Top 10 on Billboard’s R&B and Hip Hop Albums chart, and has found success with the solo hit “Get By,” which was produced by Kanye West. Additional hits include the Top 5 Black Star track “Definition,” the chart-topping Reflection Eternal singles “Move Somethin’” and “The Blast,” and the Top 5 single “One Four Love Pt. 1,” which was included on the Hip Hop for Respect EP he organized with Mos Def. Additionally, he and Common collaborated on “Get ‘Em High” from Kanye West’s The College Dropout album. Kweli recently contributed to “The Killing Season” from A Tribe Called Quest’s 2016 comeback album t

Joe Melson co-wrote more than 200 songs with Roy Orbison, including over half of Roy’s sixteen Monument Records singles that appeared on the Billboard chart between 1960 and 1963. Their first major hit together was “Only the Lonely,” a style-defining performance featuring Orbison on lead vocals and Melson on the prominent counter melody. The pair followed up their success with a string of hits, including “Blue Angel,” “Running Scared,” and “Crying.” Legendary songwriter Boudleaux Bryant once wrote, “It would be an unpardonable oversight to overlook the contribution of Joe Melson to Roy’s meteoric rise to stardom.” In the 1960s Joe landed his own record deal with the Hickory label, while continuing to pen songs for other artists. His successes in that era include The Newbeats’ Top 10 pop single “Run, Baby Run (Back Into My Arms)” and Don Gibson’s Top 40 country hit “Ever Changing Mind.” In subsequent years the team of Melson and Orbison reunited, working together as both co-writers and producers. Linda Ronstad

Rod Argent is the founding member, keyboardist, and driving force behind the legendary 1960s British Invasion band, The Zombies. Argent wrote the band’s best known classics, including the Top 10 single “Tell Her No” and the #1 hit “She’s Not There,” which Rolling Stone ranked at #297 on the list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. By the time The Zombies’ 1968 LP Odessey and Oracle was released, the group had disbanded. “Time of the Season” became a surprise hit from the album, however, reaching the Top 5 on the US charts. Over time, Odessey and Oracle has become a cult classic, and was ranked in the Top 100 Greatest Albums of All Time in both Rolling Stone and Mojo magazines. Rod went on to form the band Argent, scoring a Top 5 hit in 1972 with “Hold Your Head Up,” which he co-wrote with former Zombies bandmate Chris White. Additionally, the group recorded the original version of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You,” which was subsequently covered by KISS. After the demise of Argent, Rod threw himself into se

Natalie Hemby came to prominence as an award-winning Nashville-based writer for other artists, penning at least two dozen songs with or for Miranda Lambert, including the hits “White Liar,” “Only Prettier,” “Baggage Claim,” and the #1 single “Automatic,” which was nominated for a Grammy and named both ACM and NSAI Song of the Year. Additionally, she co-wrote Little Big Town’s chart topping singles “Pontoon” and “Tornado,” the #1 hits “Downtown” by Lady Antebellum and “You Look Like I Need a Drink” by Justin Moore, Toby Keith’s Top 20 “Drinks After Work,” and “Don’t Rush,” which was a hit for Kelly Clarkson and Vince Gill. Additionally, she scored a Top 10 UK pop hit with “Jealous,” a song co-written with - and recorded by - the English producer, performer, and multi-instrumentalist known as Labrinth. Natalie has co-written songs with a long list of artists who’ve gone on to record their collaborations, including Eli Young Band, Amy Grant, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow, Brett Eldredge, Chris Isaak, Laura Bell Bundy

The legendary Jerry Chesnut has written more than three dozen Top 40 singles, including Top 10 classics such as Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Another Place, Another Time,” Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton’s “Holding On to Nothing,” George Jones’s “A Good Year For the Roses,” Faron Young’s “It’s Four in the Morning,” Loretta Lynn’s “They Don’t Make ‘Em Like My Daddy Anymore,” and  Johnny Cash’s “Oney.” Additionally, he wrote five songs that were recorded by Elvis Presley, including the Top 10 "It's Midnight," and “T-R-O-U-B-L-E,” which would later become a hit single for Travis Tritt. Chesnut also penned charting singles for Tammy Wynette, Dave Dudley, Bobby Goldsboro, Bill Anderson, Hank Williams Jr., Mel Tillis, Tom Jones, and Alan Jackson. His songs have additionally been recorded by Waylon Jennings, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold, Ray Price, Marty Robbins, Conway Twitty, Hank Thompson, Willie Nelson, Mark Chesnutt, Johnny Paycheck, George Strait, Elvis Costello, the Counting Crows, and many others. The two-time

Texas songwriter extraordinaire Radney Foster has written over a dozen Top 10 country hits, including Colin Raye’s “Anyone Else,” Keith Urban’s “Raining on Sunday,” and Sara Evans’s “A Real Fine Place to Start.” He initially hit the scene with songwriting partner Bill Lloyd, with whom he penned Sweethearts of the Rodeo’s “Since I Found You.” The pair gained success as performers with the Top 10 singles “Crazy Over You,” “Sure Thing,” “What Do You Want From Me This Time,” and “Fair Shake,” earning four nominations for CMA Vocal Duo of the Year. Foster’s debut solo album, Del Rio, TX 1959, spawned five charting singles, including the Top 10 hit “Nobody Wins.” He has gone on to release nine additional albums as a highly respected singer/songwriter, while continuing to have his material recorded by others. Notable highlights from the Foster songbook include The Mavericks’ “I Got You,” The Dixie Chicks’ cover of “Godspeed (Sweet Dreams),” Dierks Bentley’s recording of “Sweet and Wild,” Pat Green’s Top 40 single “T

After establishing herself in Europe, New Zealand native Pam Sheyne broke through to international songwriting success when “Genie in a Bottle” hit #1 in more than 20 countries, sold millions of copies around the world, cemented Christina Aguilera’s place as a new pop superstar, and earned Sheyne an Ivor Novello award for International Hit of the Year. Pam went on to pen the single “Mirror Mirror” for the Norwegian pop duo M2M, which landed in the Top 20 on the US Dance chart, as well as “He Loves U Not,” which was recorded by the girl group Dream, hit #2 on the Billboard pop chart, and was certified Gold after selling more than a half million copies in the US. She went on to write “Irresistible,” the title track to Jessica Simpson’s second album, which reached #15 on the Billboard pop singles chart in 2001. Pam also co-wrote the Top 40 single “She Said” for teen pop singer turned Academy Award winning actress, Brie Larson, and the #1 hit “Lighthouse” for South African Idol winner Elvis Blue. Other artists wh

Scott and Paul look back on the first two years of Songcraft, sharing memories and clips of previous episodes, including some of their favorite moments from classic interviews.

Sonny Curtis began his music career in Lubbock, Texas, playing lead guitar in Buddy Holly’s pre-Crickets band, The Three Tunes. He landed his first hit as a songwriter when Webb Pierce took his song “Someday” to #12 on the Billboard country chart in 1957. He went on to his own performing career, both as a solo artist and as the longtime guitarist and vocalist for the post-Buddy Holly Crickets, while continuing to write songs that became hits for others. These include The Everly Brothers’ “Walk Right Back,” Andy Williams’ “A Fool Never Learns,” The Bobby Fuller Four’s “I Fought the Law,” Bobby Goldsboro’s “The Straight Life,” Leo Sayer’s “More Than I Can Say,” and Keith Whitley’s #1 country hit, “I’m No Stranger to the Rain.” In addition, Curtis wrote and performed “Love is All Around,” the theme song to The Mary Tyler Moore Show. His music has been covered by Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, The Grateful Dead, The Stray Cats, Bryan Adams, John Cougar Mellencamp, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Waylon Jennings, Hank W

Multi-Grammy award winner Loretta Lynn is an American music legend. The Kentucky native married as a young teenager, moved to Washington State, and had four children by age 20. She poured her energies into life as a homemaker before teaching herself to play guitar and write songs. Her life experiences informed her writing style, which gave voice to the concerns of everyday working class women. She landed a record contract with a regional label and tirelessly promoted her first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” to radio stations across the country. The record climbed to #14 on the Billboard country chart, leading to a move to Nashville. After appearing on the Grand Ole Opry and signing a songwriting deal with the Wilburn Brothers’ publishing company she was recruited to Decca Records by legendary producer Owen Bradley. Loretta went on to place more than 75 singles on the Billboard country chart as either a solo artist or as a duet partner with Ernest Tubb or Conway Twitty. More than 50 of those singles hit the

Tom Russell is a painter, essayist, and critically lauded singer-songwriter in the Western folk tradition, All Music Guide called him “perhaps the finest American folk-roots artist that most Americans never heard of,” while Rolling Stone’s John Swenson dubbed him “the greatest living folk-country songwriter.” Russell was discovered by Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter in New York in the early 1980s and launched his solo artist career soon after. His songs “Blue Wing” and “Black Pearl” each reached the Top 40 on the Canadian country charts, while Suzy Bogguss took “Outbound Plane,” which Tom co-wrote with Nanci Griffith, to the Top 10 in the US. The hyper-literate and historically-minded troubadour poet has found loyal devotees including cultural icons ranging from Johnny Cash, who recorded his songs, to David Letterman, who invited Russell on his late night show on at least five different occasions. Songs such as “Gallo del Cielo” and “Navajo Rug” have become fan favorites, while “Tonight We Ride” was sel

The daughter of legendary Nashville songwriter and producer Buddy Cannon, Marla Cannon-Goodman first made her mark when Lee Ann Womack took her song “The Fool” to the top of the country charts in 1997. Cannon went on to pen the #1 hits “Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo” by Tracy Byrd and “Cleaning This Gun” by Rodney Atkins, as well as the hit singles “Don’t Make Me” by Blake Shelton and “Rock On” by Tucker Beathard. Other artists who’ve recorded her songs include Sammy Kershaw, Susan Ashton, Craig Morgan, Tracy Lawrence, Billy Currington, Eric Church, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Joe Nichols, Sara Evans, and others. She is a multiple ASCAP award winner and regularly lends her talents to various charities and fundraising efforts in the Nashville community.

Launching his professional career as a child actor on Broadway, Gary Wright eventually moved to Europe to pursue post-graduate studies in Psychology. While there, he co-founded the group Spooky Tooth as keyboardist and primary songwriter. He departed in 1970 to launch a solo career and, during this era, began working as a studio musician, playing on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album, Ringo Starr’s “It Don’t Come Easy,” Harry Nilsson’s “Without You,” and other notable recordings by legends such as B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis. His work with George Harrison led to a lifelong friendship, resulting in Wright appearing on every Harrison solo album in the 1970s. George recorded several of their co-written compositions, including “If You Believe” from his 1979 self-titled album and “That’s What It Takes,” which the two composed with Jeff Lynne for the acclaimed Cloud 9 album. After a second stint with Spooky Tooth from 1972-1974, Gary’s commercial breakthrough as a solo artist came when he signed with Wa

A multiple BMI award-winning songwriter, Maurice Williams is best known for penning two R&B classics, “Stay,” and “Little Darlin’.” The latter song first appeared on the Excello label in 1957 as recorded by Williams’ own group, The Gladiolas. It was soon covered by The Diamonds, who made it a national #2 hit on both the Billboard pop and R&B charts. Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” kept the song from the top spot, though Elvis himself would later record “Little Darlin’” for his 1977 Moody Blue album. Williams’ Gladiolas eventually morphed into Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, who topped the charts with “Stay” in 1960. Though the song is only 97 seconds long, its infectious falsetto harmony hook, “Oh won’t you stay just a little bit longer,” made it an instant doo-wop classic and the record holder for the shortest song to ever hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart.  Other artists have charted with their own Top 20 hit versions, including the Hollies, the Four Seasons, and Jackson Browne. The Zodiacs’ origi

Pioneering female artist and celebrated Queen of Rockabilly, Wanda Jackson, landed more than 30 songs on the Billboard charts between 1954 and 1974. These include the self-penned singles "Right or Wrong" and "In the Middle of a Heartache," two Top 10 hits which proved to be Jackson’s most successful records as a solo artist. Beginning her career as a pure country singer, Wanda’s debut single was a duet with Billy Gray called “You Can’t Have My Love.” Released on Decca Records, the song hit #8 on the country chart in 1954. She later switched to the Capitol label where she was encouraged by then-boyfriend and tour mate Elvis Presley to embrace rockabilly. Facing a lack of female-oriented material in the genre, Wanda penned her own songs, including the rockabilly standards "Mean Mean Man," "Rock Your Baby," "Cool Love" and "Baby Loves Him," each of which was released as a single on Capitol Records and later appeared on her classic Rockin' with Wanda LP. Additionally, she penned Top 10 hits for other artists, in

Gordon Kennedy is a Nashville-based songwriter, producer, and guitarist best known for co-writing “Change the World,” which Eric Clapton took to the top of the charts and kept in the Top 20 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary rankings for an unprecedented 81 weeks. That success won Kennedy a Grammy Award for Song of the Year and turbocharged his commercial songwriting career. After scoring a #3 Billboard country hit with “You Move Me” in 1998, Garth Brooks went on to release 10 more Kennedy-penned songs on his 1999 Chris Gaines album. These included the Top 5 pop hit “Lost in You” and “It Don’t Matter to the Sun,” which fell just shy of the Top 20 on the country chart. Kennedy has enjoyed additional charting singles, such as Faith Hill’s “It Will Be Me;” the Clark Family Experience’s “Meanwhile Back at the Ranch;” Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood’s “Love Will Always Win;” Carrie Underwood’s “The More Boys I Meet;” and Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Help You Now,” “I Will Not Be Broken,” and “Gypsy in Me.” Other art

Mississippi native Trent Dabbs relocated to Nashville in the early 2000s, where he’s carved out a niche on the local indie rock and Americana scene. Over the last twelve years, he’s released ten solo albums, a collaborative EP with edgy country sensation Ashley Monroe, and two retro R&B inspired projects with fellow singer/songwriter Amy Stroup under the name Sugar + The Hi-Lows. Earning significant critical acclaim, All Music predicted that Sugar + The Hi-Lows “just might be the next breakout band to capture the nation’s imagination.” Dabbs is a co-founder of the Ten out of Tenn artist collective, and has collaborated with high-profile songwriters, including Lori McKenna, Gabe Dixon, Joy Williams of the Civil Wars, and Kacey Musgraves, with whom he penned the Top 40 country single “Undermine” from the hit TV show Nashville. Other songs from the Trent Dabbs catalog that have appeared on the series include “World on Time,” “I’m Coming Over,” “Shine,” and “Don’t Put Dirt on My Grave Just Yet,” which became

Between 1961 and 1970 Steve Cropper was a fixture at Memphis’ legendary Stax Records and studio, where he worked as a producer, guitarist, engineer, artist, A&R man, and songwriter. During that era he penned over a dozen songs that reached the Top 10 on Billboard's R&B and Pop charts, including Otis Redding’s “Mr. Pitiful" and “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay;" Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour,” “Don’t Fight It,” and “634-5789;” Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood;” as well as “See Saw,” which was a hit for both Don Covay and Aretha Franklin. Additionally, his band Booker T. & the MG’s scored with several of Cropper’s co-written instrumental singles, such as “Green Onions,” “Hip Hug-Her,” “Soul-Limbo,” and “Time is Tight.” In the 1970s Steve joined the original incarnation of the Blues Brothers Band and appeared prominently in the film. Additionally, he produced memorable albums such as Tower of Power’s We Came to Play and Jon Cougar's Nothing Matters and What If It Did. Cropper issued a pair of s

After Linda Ronstadt scored a Top 10 hit with Billy Steinberg’s “How Do I Make You” in 1980, he went on to score a series of chart-topping singles co-written with Tom Kelly, including “Like a Virgin” by Madonna, “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper, “Alone” by Heart, "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston, and “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles. Additional Top 10 hits from the Steinberg/Kelly songbook include “In Your Room” by the Bangles, “I Touch Myself” by Divinyls, “I’ll Stand By You” by The Pretenders, and “I Drove All Night,” which was a major international hit three different times, first by Cyndi Lauper, then by Roy Orbison, and, finally, by Celine Dion. After Tom Kelly retired from the music business, Steinberg partnered with Rick Nowels, with whom he won a Grammy for their work on the title track to Celine Dion’s multiplatinum Falling Into You album in 1996. Since the mid-2000s, Billy has written extensively with Josh Alexander, with whom he penned JoJo's Top 5 pop hit "Too Little Too Late" and Demi Lovato’s “Give

Jamie Floyd is a West Palm Beach, Florida native who grew up in a musical family where she had the opportunity to perform as an opening act for Rascal Flatts, James Taylor, and others. By the age of 11 she’d signed her first production and publishing deals, eventually relocating to Nashville where she found success writing for other artists. She’s best known as the co-writer of “the Blade,” which became the title track to Ashley Monroe’s 2015 album and was named one of the top songs of the year by NPR Music. Co-produced by Vince Gill and featuring a guest appearance by Miranda Lambert, the song became the album’s centerpiece and helped earn the project a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album of the Year. Others who’ve recorded Floyd’s songs include former Brooks & Dunn front man Ronnie Dunn, who featured the song “Once” on his debut solo album, which went to the #1 spot on the Billboard country chart in 2011. Jamie’s song “Trouble Get Me Off Your Mind” was performed by R&B powerhouse Brian McKnight