Storytelling Through Song Quotes

Getting to do 'December Songs' in a cabaret-style format was so interesting because it's like a one-woman song cycle that actually tells a story. It feels like a theatrical experience more than a cabaret because I didn't talk in between. We went from one song to the next, nine songs in a row - bam - I told the story in half an hour.

I love Lauryn Hill, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple. People like that. People you can really connect to on the most basic human level.

Every day, my mom and I would watch a different Judy Garland VHS. I love how she tells a story when she sings. It was just about her voice and the words she was singing - no strings attached or silly hair or costumes, just a woman singing her heart out. I feel like that doesn't happen that much anymore.

I think to me, all songs are stories.

Social topics may hit too close to home for people, but then again, if you pull a heartstring, then that's what country music is. It's not just songs about getting drunk and leaving your girl.

I think being a singer-songwriter... your job is to tell a story that other people can't really tell themselves. And I really hope that people kinda go: "This happened once and I kind of like this song because I relate to it..." So if at least one of my songs over this tour's that song, then that's really cool.

As a songwriter, I've always loved to tell stories. But in my band, it was always about what would make sense for a band to put out.

I'm kind of a pop balladeer because I love the art of storytelling. I call myself 'HBO for the ears'; I sing little movies.

What I'm trying to do is tell good stories through music. I think some of the best songs, the best country songs, are stories.

To have a song work for the movie, it can't just be written apart and shoved in. It's got to come out of the action. It's got to talk about the characters, not the story: it has to augment that action.

The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning.

Usually, in musical theater, if you sing operatically or if you sing in a legit style, you're the heart of the show. You maybe get to be moving and do dramatic stuff, but it's very rare to be that funny.

I remember writing '5 Dollars' out of intense listening sessions of Bruce Springsteen. I don't know if it's obvious, but I was obsessed with how limpid Bruce Springsteen's melodies are: It's such a great way to do storytelling and to still be melodic and catchy.

Some of my favorite films are musicals, like 'Walk the Line,' 'The Rose' and 'Lady Sings the Blues.' I just love the way the music and the story fuel each other.

'The Last Five Years' is this quintessential piece, and every song is an actor's song, and every song is incredibly difficult and incredibly powerful and incredibly amazing. It was one of those things in college where, like, you gauged how good you were by how well you were able to pull off a song from 'The Last Five Years.'