The New York Times has been running a music blog called Measure for Measure, written by musicians about the songwriting process. Featured are pieces by country singer Roseanne Cash, contemporary singer/songwriter Suzanne Vega, pop songwriter/producer Darrell Brown (LeAnn Rimes’ Family) and eclectic Chicago-based artist Andrew Bird. Generally, these are quite thoughtful and intimate posts that find the artists opening up about personal and professional views they hold on writing and recording music. Bird’s latest post is about recording his upcoming album at Wilco’s Loft studio. He writes, “Sometimes, as I’ve noted before, the object itself gets assigned a mystical value and must be on a song, though I know most listeners could not care less whether we use a Telefunken mic or a 30-year-old calf skin drum head.”

Check the blog here.

Here’s a playlist of recent work by the Measure for Measure bloggers:

Roseanne Cash “Black Cadillac” from Black Cadillac
Roseanne Cash “Dreams Are Not My Home” from Black Cadillac
Andrew Bird “Fiery Crash” from Armchair Apocrypha
Andrew Bird “Armchairs” from Armchair Apocrypha
Suzanne Vega “New York Is a Woman” from Beauty & Crime
Suzanne Vega “Frank and Ava” from Beauty & Crime
LeAnn Rimes (co-writer Darrell Brown) “Good Friend and a Glass of Wine” from Family
Keith Urban (co-writer Darrell Brown) “Used to the Pain” from Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing