What makes a good song good? Johnny Thunders / Laree Cisco / Sam Hoyos

It's all subjective. As a songwriter I enjoy songs that make me think, catchy lyrics, clever word play, a message, and good phrasing. I don't care if it's guitar and vocals, or piano and vocals, sparse, minimal. A great song that works with vocals and simple accompaniment doesn't need gimmicks.

Johnny Thunders is one of my favorites. He's not what you'd call a "great singer" in the traditional sense, but he rips it up on guitar and he wrote some amazing songs. There's a great vulnerability and honesty to his material...it's not overthought, it's a lost art and it's timeless. There's nothing like a person with their instrument and their voice. No bells and whistles. No autotune, no programming, no automation, it's an honest to goodness performance.

Even when it's fleshed out, it's emotive. I don't hear a whole lot of new music today that makes me feel like Johnny Thunders did, but one of my favorite songwriters that I know these days is Laree Cisco. He turned me onto the February Album Writing Month, which definitely improved me as a songwriter. Dude writes great arrangements. Laree's music is smoother than the buzzsaw ruckus of Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, and god damn do I appreciate what he does just as much. Get at his BandCamp and make a buy. It's good shit. Here he is killing it, below... performing a great song, and it's awesome. Find the full version on BandCamp, it rules. Laree's got bangers.

Another great songwriter that's making excellent new music is Sam Hoyos from the band Playing Dead. Playing Dead has been around for more than fifteen years, and they have some tremendous melodies and choruses. I think he's a genius too, I follow him on social media and he'll post acoustic stuff, it always sounds great. Playing Dead's videos are awesome, they're the perfect example of taking your songwriting seriously and writing great arrangements, while not taking yourself completely seriously.