Shel Silverstein

Shel Silverstein wrote songs that felt like his poems set to music, with titles like "A Front Row Seat To Hear Ole Johnny Sing" and "Alimony" showing his knack for storytelling with a twist. He started putting out records in the 1960s and 1970s, working mostly on his own but sometimes bringing in other musicians for recordings.

While he's better known for books like The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, his music had the same mix of humor and melancholy. The songs could be playful one moment and quietly sad the next, never quite fitting into folk or country neatly.

He grew up in Chicago listening to Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, and you can hear some of that plainspoken quality in tracks like "Better Not Ask Me." Silverstein kept writing and recording until his death in 1999, leaving behind a catalog that feels personal and slightly off-kilter, much like his drawings.