Bob Muller replied to my post:
> > And her peers would be whom ???? > > That would depend on which category you want to discuss her in. As a > composer I would say her peers are Gershwin, Monk, Bernstein, among > others...as a singer-songwriter you've got Waits, Springsteen, Dylan, > Browne, Taylor, the usual suspects. > If you want to examine her as a singer or as a guitarist or as a painter, > it'd be a whole different list. I do not think we disagree here (although I think Joni ought to be flattered to be put in the company of the many composers she has recently been put in the company of via Symphony Space and now tonight). My point is, if you take the following categories (all in the realm of the singer songwriters), who else ranks high in all of them ? Of those, who comes close to ranking as high as Joni overall ? Composer (the melody, chord structure, harmonies, etc.) Lyricist Singer (studio and live) Instrumentalist (studio and live) Producer Contributions to the art of playing of her instrument(s) Oh yeah, a painter, too. Anyone else even close ? Take any of those on your list and do a side by side comparison. Like, at golf they list all of the statistics - Driving, driving accuracy, greens in regulation, putting, sand saves, scoring average, etc. If you are in the top 10 in 4 of them, you're Tiger Woods. As an aside, I noted that of the American Masters in Music, the only other women are all basically singers. Is Joni in their league as a singer ? Perhaps not, but some would argue that she is. How about the rest of the package ?
