On April 27, 2026, The New York Times published a list titled, “The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters.” Polling a pool of more than 200 artists and critics, the unranked list spans multiple generations and genres and, as such things typically go, it walks a tightrope between being good discussion fodder and rage bait.
Country music was rather well represented on the list, which includes Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Taylor Swift, and a shared entry for Brandy Clark / Shane McAnally / Josh Osborne. Still, taking an all-genre approach to this exercise leaves a lot of folks worthy of recognition on the outside in favor of big names.
So consider this our country-specific “Supplemental Reading” list.
Following the same parameters as the NYT, we’ve compiled our picks for the:
30 (… with a few honorable mentions…)
Greatest (… quality over quantity, Ashley Gorley…)
Living (… how dare you up and die right before we could give you your flowers, Don Schlitz…)
American (… no Kasey Chambers or Fred Eaglesmith…)
Songwriters (… vocal talent incidental this time…)
Sound off in the comments with who we got right and who we missed.
The 30 Greatest Living American Country Songwriters
Tony Arata
(“The Dance,” “Here I Am”)
Matraca Berg
(“The Dreaming Fields,” “Strawberry Wine”)
Bobby Braddock
(“Golden Ring,” “He Stopped Loving Her Today”)
Neko Case
(“Deep Red Bells,” “Star Witness”)
Rosanne Cash
(“Black Cadillac,” “Seven Year Ache”)
Brandy Clark
(“Pray to Jesus,” “Who You Thought I Was”)
Rodney Crowell
(“I Walk the Line Revisited,” “Please Remember Me”)
Iris DeMent
(“Mama’s Opry,” “Our Town”)
Dean Dillon
(“The Chair,” “Tennessee Whiskey”)
Bobbie Gentry
(“Casket Vignette,” “Fancy”)
Patty Griffin
(“Don’t Let Me Die in Florida,” “Let Him Fly”)
Ray Wylie Hubbard
(“Down Home Country Blues,” “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother”)
Jason Isbell
(“Cover Me Up,” “If We Were Vampires”)
Robert Earl Keen
(“Feelin’ Good Again,” “The Road Goes On Forever”)
Amythyst Kiah
(“Black Myself,” “Polly Jean’s Hammer”)
Miranda Lambert
(“Kerosene,” “Vice”)
Jim Lauderdale
(“We Really Shouldn’t Be Doing This,” “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me”)
Lori McKenna
(“Girl Crush,” “Stealing Kisses”)
James McMurtry
(“Sons of the Second Sons,” “Where’d You Hide the Body”)
Rhett Miller
(“Doreen,” “Most in the Summertime”)
Willie Nelson
(“Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” “Crazy”)
Paul Overstreet
(“On the Other Hand,” “One of Those Things”)
Dolly Parton
(“Coat of Many Colors,” “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind”)
Gretchen Peters
(“Independence Day,” “The Matador”)
Alice Randall
(“Went for a Ride,” “XXXs and OOOs”)
Kim Richey
(“Nobody Wins,” “Where Are You Now”)
Bruce Robison
(“Travelin’ Soldier,” “Wrapped”)
Darrell Scott
(“Long Time Gone,” “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive”)
Sonny Throckmorton
(“The Way I Am,” “Why Not Me”)
Lucinda Williams
(“Drunken Angel,” “Get Right with God”)
Noting for posterity that it says so much about their taste that more than half of that list could have been supported by song interpretations performed by a combination of Trisha Yearwood, Patty Loveless, Pam Tillis, and The Chicks, with another good percentage from George Strait, Randy Travis, and Tim McGraw. The good ones know the good ones.
… Additional Considerations:
Adeem The Artist
Jessi Alexander
(Whisperin’) Bill Anderson
Tyler Childers
Steve Earle
Alejandro Escovedo
Evan Felker
Radney Foster
Rhiannon Giddens
Patterson Hood / Mike Cooley
Lyle Lovett
Shane McAnally
Ashley McBryde
Ashley Monroe
Allison Moorer
Kacey Musgraves
Josh Osborne
Allison Russell
Chris Stapleton
Dwight Yoakam
Pretty solid list. I think Alan Jackson probably deserved inclusion but most of the top tier was accounted for. Hard for me to even narrow it down to a favorite or even trio of favorite because there are so many essential songwriters on the list who penned so many on my list of all-time classics. Agreed that Don Schlitz’s passing was a last-minute curveball. I’m guessing a “greatest deceased songwriters list” might be forthcoming to correct the record.
Lists of Dead People are always a weird exercise, but it’s definitely worth noting that so many of the iconic songwriters of country’s “golden era” have passed, to say nothing of some of the more recent deaths like Schlitz and Todd Snider. But for those who’ve died, it might be even easier to come up with something like the 30 greatest songs written by Harlan Howard or Cindy Walker or Schlitz or (… choose from 100+ others…).
Jackson’s a strong choice, too. “Drive (For Daddy Gene)” and “The Older I Get” would be my highlight picks for him, but he for sure has the catalog.
Great list. I think Bill Anderson has to be somewhere in the top group, but it’s hard to argue with any combination of these writers.
Recency bias on my part, most likely, but I couldn’t think of an Anderson song that I would’ve bumped someone out of the top group for. But the Honorable Mentions are there for just that reason: No judgment here for anyone making a one-for-one swap!
Solid list. My main complaint with the NYT version is that it leaned too much on name recognition and didn’t seem to give much consideration to writers like Braddock who crank out great songs for others without being particularly notable as performers themselves.
Agreed. There is definitely a skew toward performers who also happen to write their own songs instead of folks who are more in that “professional songwriter” bucket. I tried to highlight more of that latter group here; sure, I’ve gone to bat many times for the likes of Berg, Lauderdale, Hubbard, and Peters as recording artists, but they’re among many others I picked who are likely best known for the quality of their writing.
Honestly, I’m shocked that the NYT list didn’t include Adele and Beyonce as “big name” artists who write their own songs.