Musicians whose mothers were songwriters

A James Redd can’t fall asleep thread

Hoyt Axton/Mae Axton

John “Bucky” Wilkin/Marijohn Wilkin

Bob Johnston/Diane Johnston

Nick and Gabrielle Drake?

Martha Wainwright / Kate McGarrigle

(If we want to open it up to “musicians who had a parent who was a songwriter, but not known as a performer”, and allow dads we could have
Bill Charlap/Moose Charlap, but I like this direction you are taking)

recorded 927 songs, wrote about 3, but Marcia Hines / Deni Hines

Kesha/Pebe Sebert

(A notable one especially for the fact that Kesha’s discography is peppered with credits from her mom, and on some of the really noteworthy hits as well)

Prince Rogers Nelson / John Lewis Nelson

god I am an idiot, ignore me

Harry Nilsson's mother, Bette, wrote songs, at least two of which he later covered/adapted.

Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips, daughter of Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas (co-writer of California Dreamin', among others).

Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion ‘s Mother was a rapper

Her mother, Holly Thomas, rapped under the name Holly-Wood and would bring her daughter with her to recording sessions, instead of putting Pete in daycare.
Wikipedia

peggy seeger/ruth crawford seeger

(her kids knew her as "Dio"!)

It still sounds weird to me when I hear people talk about the rap music that their parents played at home.

Maya Rudolph/Minnie Riperton

Laura Nyro and Aretha Franklin both had sons who rap

Laura - Gil-T
Aretha - Kecalf Cunningham

Aretha had another son named Teddy Richards who played guitar in her band

Helen Merrill, the jazz singer, has a few composer credits; her son Alan Merrill wrote "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" among other songs

Céline Dion's mom wrote her first song, "Ce n'était qu'un rêve".

“Musicians whose mothers invented Liquid Paper”

Great work all around, thanks, particularly this last.

Kinda amazed at that Merrill one!

Violeta Parra's two children Isabel and Angel were both folk musicians.

Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips, daughter of Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas (co-writer of California Dreamin', among others).

Not sure if Norma Waterson ever wrote any songs but Lal Waterson did and her son and daughter are musicians.

Linda Thompson. Teddy and Kamila, two of her children with Richard, are both musicians.

Carole King / Louise Goffin

Sean Lennon

Agnetha Fältskog (who was a songwriter too) / Linda Ulvaeus
Björk / Sindri Eldon

Thompson and Goffin have been swimming just below the surface of the Solaris ocean of my aging brain. Sean Lennon I deliberately held back for some reason and was waiting to see how long it would take for someone else to post.

Mention of Teddy Thompson reminds me that his friend Rufus Wainwright should be here with his sister and mother.

June Carter Cash (but NOT Roseanne Cash, oddly enough)

Rosie Nix Adams

June Carter Cash (but NOT Roseanne Cash, oddly enough)

was gonna say Carnie Wilson but I don't think Marilyn Rovell ever actually wrote anything

Peggy and Patsy Lynn

I don't think Roseanne Cash's kids do music either, but iirc one of them manages/handles affairs for father Rodney Crowell.

took too long for Wainwright to get mentioned! also: Sean Lennon.

Ravi Coltrane

*oof*

tim and jeff buckley
eagle eye + neneh and don cherry
hank williams and offspring

doesn’t fit but i was recently surprised to learn that the louvin brothers were the cousins of john d. loudermilk

also r. stevie moore is the son of bob moore, prolific and revered session bassist who occasionally wrote tunes and is STILL ALIVE at 86

And their mothers?

Lucy Wainwright Roche / Suzzy Roche

(If we want to open it up to “musicians who had a parent who was a songwriter, but not known as a performer”, and allow dads

^ i read this and just went with it, but if we don’t want to do that we don’t have to and you can disregard my posts

xp

Feel like the thread has worked out really well the original constraints so prefer not to expand at this point but thanks for contributing, no harm no foul.

The year 1976 marked a turning point for (Samantha Bea) Benjamin. She and Ibrahim returned to South Africa to live; she gave birth to her daughter, Tsidi (now the underground hip-hop artist Jean Grae); and recorded African Songbird, an album of original compositions, for South Africa's Gallo Records. Shortly after Tsidi's birth, the family relocated to New York city in 1977, to the famed Hotel Chelsea. Some originals on other albums too.

Also on Wiki and YouTube:
Molly Drake (born Mary Lloyd, 5 November 1915 – 4 June 1993) was a Welsh poet and musician, best known as the mother of the musician Nick Drake. Molly Drake never released any official publications of her poetry or compositions in her lifetime, but she had a profound impact on the musical style of her son. As Nick Drake's music gained a larger following after his death, Molly Drake's recordings have been released, which uncover the musical similarities between her and her son.

african songbird is a fantastic fucking album

i should probably get around to listening to jean grae, i'm just old

oh, also, karen mantler's mom is carla bley

Now I’m curious. Will listen.

xp

durn it, I switched Nick's sister's and mother's names in my mind

Anne Murray's daughter, Canadian singer/songwriter Dawn Langstroth, is the daughter of Canadian singer/songwriter Anne Murray.

Carla Bley/ Karen Mantler, doh!

Ben Taylor, son of Carly Simon.

I sort of posited his existence but did not set up my experiment properly to achieve a positive result.

From my blog-archived 2013 Nashville Scene ballot & comments:
(brushing by: Avalon, daughter of Annette Peacock, & The Loups (from now- vanished Soundcloud vantage): "A loup is a waterfall which a salmon has to leap on its way upstream." Then there's the spooky loup-garou. Both might apply to "Desert Air," which begins right after the sun finally dissolves, the air begins to cool, Avalon's rich trill multiplies and courses down and up the mountain. "We changed the oil in your mind, left the city far behind." So, country in that sense, her and drummer Joe Love (re maybe Speck Mountain, Nina Nastasia & Jim White? A fast Mazzy Star, if that's even possible? For a remake of Zabriskie Point ? Anyway, I wanna hear more (someday, someway).

Oops time to tweak those paren marks.