The Singer-Songwriter Handbook

Justin A. Williams is Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Bristol, UK. He is the author of Rhymin and Stealin: Musical Borrowing in Hip-hop (2013) and editor of the Cambridge Companion to Hip-hop (2015) and co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to the Singer-Songwriter (2016). Katherine Williams is Lecturer in Music and Performance Pathway Leader at Plymouth University, UK. She is the author of Rufus Wainwright (2016), and co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to the Singer-Songwriter (2016).

Editors’ Introduction

Part Ia: Songwriting
Ch. 1 Nadav Appel “The Singer-Songwriter Disposition”
Ch. 2 Mark Simos “The Performing Songwriter’s Dilemma: Principles and Practices”
Ch. 3 Zack Moir “Learning to Create and Creating to Learn: Considering the Value of Popular Music in Higher Education”
Ch. 4 Simon Barber “Professional Songwriting Techniques: A range of views summarized from the Sodajerker Interviews”
Ch. 5 Lee Bob Watson “A River, A Bible & A Broken Heart”

Part Ib: Songwriting in the Digital Era
Ch. 6 Mark Marrington “Composing with the Digital Audio Workstation.”
Ch. 7 Rob Toulson and Richard James Burgess “Singer-songwriter meets music production and studio technology”
Ch. 8 Lisa Busby “Post-digital approaches to songwriting”

Part II: Performance
Ch. 9 Dane Chalfin “From ‘me’ to ‘we’: Stagecraft, performance and audience communication.”
Ch. 10 Sija Tsai and Andrew Hillhouse “The Mariposa Folk Festival and the Canadian Singer- songwriter Tradition”
Ch.11 Seth Lakeman testimonial “Stories from my life and tips for getting ahead” (interview with Katherine Williams)

Part III: The Music Industry
Ch. 12 Sam Nicholls “Audience Engagement and Alternative Revenue Streams”
Ch. 13 Jo Collinson Scott and David Scott, “The Portfolio Career in Practice: Key Aspects of Building a Sustainable Songwriting and Performance Career in the Download Era”
Ch. 14 Emma Hooper “Waitress for the Bees: How to (almost) Never Play a Bad Gig Again: A Simple Way to Approach Performing Professionally”

Part IV: Case Studies
Ch. 15 Alexandra Apolloni
Vocal Authorship: Marianne Faithfull and “Sister Morphine”
Ch. 16 Claire Coleman
“Indie folk’s bowerbirds: Nostalgia and contemporary singer-songwriters”
Ch. 17 Juliane Jones “Play the Bluebird to the Bitter End: Open Mics in Nashville, NYC and Shanghai”

Bibliography
Index