Willie Nelson once sang, "you can't make a record if you ain't got nothing to say." When the music is stripped down to the raw emotion that musics are communicating, there's an opportunity for listeners to learn something about themselves. Here are lyrics excerpts from the nominees for Best Lyricist at the 2018 DAM Awards.

Claire Morales

There's nothing I'm saying you don't already know
My friend there ought to be someone to see through the veil
To know you to find what you really are
It is dormant and quiet but it wants to be heard
When you don't speak a word

confine yourself to bed
your eyes know there's nothing left
to hide why do they evade my gaze?
I'll just give you my word
like a prophet in the corner
speak in tongues, too true too familiar

      from the song, "Golden"

Megan Storie

If this doesn't break us then I don't know what will
I don't know what will. What will?
Throwing conversations right in to a well
Watch as the words spill off your tongue
The tiny cabin is quaking
The walls are growing thin
Along with your skin, an undertaking

from the song "The Silence Has Left You"

Dahlia Knowles (Lorelei K)

i said i love you
and then i said i didn't mean it
but oh how i meant it
and surely i do mean it
and then you left again
go out of my bed again
closed the door real soft again
i felt my own heart break again
i miss you all the time
even when i'm in your arms
i miss you all the time daddy
when you're here and when you're gone
i'm in love with a stranger
no sign of when i'll see you again

from the song "Hands" off Be the Doll

Eric Michener (Fishboy)

and the moral of the story if I guess there’s one
if you are an artist, do not give up
Days it might be easy
other days it’s hard
they can take you down but they can’t take your art

from "Final Frontman" off Art Guards

Matt Grigsby

This country joint needed waiters and they gave me a chance
I was slinging diet coke and extra ranch, to the elderly and obese
And for three and half years I put up with the crap
From the Sunday suits and the Nascar hats
One day I guess I just snapped, 
I took my two week vacation and never went back
'Cause that was a shitty job”

from the song "Anthem of the Working Man" off Worthy of Love

Header image photographed by Michael Briggs
Header image layout designed by Holden Foster