About This Site

Welcome to Drunks with Pens!

The title comes from the lyrics of Hayes Carll’s song “Hard Out Here”:

And everybody’s talking ‘bout the shape I’m in/ They say, boy you ain’t a poet, just a drink with a pen/ Over and over, again and again/ Lord, they don’t know about the places I’ve been…

In the song the gossiping voices are critical, but the truth is must of us love the songs penned by the drunks, don’t we. We’re captivated by songs of angst, alcoholism, and addiction. We like the hard luck tales, because most of us have had them and probably because music helps us believe we can overcome them, or at least turn them into something meaningful and beautiful like a great song does.

Personal struggles with alcohol or drugs have certainly given lots of songwriters inspiration for songs, but so too have psychological issues; financial burdens; conflicts with family, friends and lovers; political and social issues; and sometimes just a vivid imagination. That’s really what this blog is about, great songs made up of memorable melodies and thought-provoking lyrics.

Don’t be misled by the title. It’s not about drinking or drinking songs, and it’s not about songwriters with addiction issues. There will certainly be plenty of posts about the latter, but there will also be plenty of posts about songwriters who are teetotalers, or who might not even touch caffeine! What it is about is singer-songwriters who have something to say.

It is also about artists who are somewhat neglected by the mainstream. It seems to us that a relatively small group of artists, some brilliant and some much less so, get so much attention for everything they do, whether it merits it or not. Yet so many brilliant artists struggle for attention and rarely get it. We want to do our small part to bring attention to those who deserve it.
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If you don’t find your favorite artist here, don’t assume it’s because we don’t like them or think them worthy. That may well be the case, but it may also be that we think they are doing just fine without attention from our little site.

These are all judgement calls of course, and we’re sure we’ll take heat for our judgements. We hope so and we look forward to hearing from you. We’re both very passionate about music, and think people should be. We like to argue and defend our tastes, but in the end we realize it’s completely subjective.

Also, while we’ll do our best to respond to any comments or suggestions, please understand that we both have full time jobs, so it could take time. Hopefully you’ll feel free to argue amongst yourselves in the comments, but we do have one requirement. Keep it civil. If you’ve ever been to New Orleans or the area, you’ve probably seen signs similar to this in lots of establishments:
Be-Nice-or-Leave-Poster
Well the same goes here! Music should never be an excuse to fight!

Important Note: All content in this site, except as noted, otherwise attributed, or embedded from another source, is created by Michael Toler and Martin Magee under the terms of the Creative Commons license below. Please be sure to respect the terms of this license and those of other content providers.

Creative Commons License
DWP (Drunks with Pens) by Michael Toler / Martin Magee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

1 thought on “About This Site

  1. My first time seeing and hearing Hayes Carll I came home that evening and posted a pic of him and said “He’s so much more than a drunk with a pen” So, I find this right on time.

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