Instrumental songwriting
"In Unison" An Original Song by Jeff Monkman
Folk Rock Songwriter
"A Hard Sell" Written by Songwriter Jeff Monkman
The roots of the singer-songwriter in North America can be traced back to folk singers who created original songs in the folk music genre. The best known early singer-songwriters include Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and Pete Seeger, along with members of The Weavers. This movement often focused around labor unions, but also included other topics that affected the people of the times. Seeger became a popular advocate for a number of causes, and used his popularity to not only promote his own causes, but also to introduce his audiences to the songs of many of the newer singer-songwriters, such as Bob Dylan, Fred Neil, Cat Stevens, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, and Harry Chapin.
The first popular recognition of the singer-songwriter in English-speaking North America occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s when a series of folk and country-influenced musicians rose to prominence and popularity. These singer-songwriters included Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Neil Young, John Denver, Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, Dave Mason, Jim Croce, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Gordon Lightfoot, Nick Drake, Fred Neil, Tom Rush, Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen, Carly Simon, Cat Stevens, Bruce Cockburn, Van Morrison, Townes Van Zandt, Harry Chapin, James Taylor, Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash. People who had been primarily songwriters, notably Carole King, also began releasing work as performers. In contrast to the storytelling approach of most prior country and folk music, these performers typically wrote songs from a highly personal (often first-person), introspective point of view. The adjectives "confessional" and "sensitive" were often used (sometimes derisively) to describe this early singer-songwriter style. From Wikipedia
"The Sacred Tree" by Jeff Monkman
