I posted earlier that I like Seger's new album. Also thought his comments in this Pittsburgh interview are interesting.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06348/745939-42.stm
Excerpt
Is there any music that you like that would surprise people. Like, do you have an iPod full of ...
I don't have an iPod, because I don't particularly like the quality of it, and my son goes along with me on that. He carries a CD player cause he likes the better quality. My daughter has an iPod. But, anyway, I have fairly esoteric tastes. I really like Tom Waits, I really like Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, of course Dylan, just great songwriters, in my opinion. Anyone who is a great songwriter is someone I gravitate to.
That's interesting, because that doesn't seem to be in line with your audience, which is more blue-collar.
Well, I'm a blue-collar guy. I'm a high school grad, so I'm not putting myself out there as a poet or a genius, and some of those people, I consider geniuses like Joni Mitchell and Dylan and Cohen, Waits. They're such beautiful great lyrics, wonderful turns of phrases and things. But that doesn't mean I can't listen to them and try to emulate them and drill that into my head. That's how hard you have to work to even be in the same room as those people. To be in the same state, how about that?