His early writing reflected the popular style of the French troubadours, courtly poet-musicians who sang of their longing for a beautiful lady.
—
Claudia Roth Pierpont,
New Yorker,
24 Nov. 2025
That exquisitely rare skill — the ability to arrange a handful of ordinary notes in a way that makes time stop and pulses quicken — unites long-anonymous troubadours, symphonists, Broadway entertainers, earnest singer-songwriters, griots, and ancient clerics.
But this award, which was inaugurated in 2023 with a Jesso win, circles the same handful of writers, and country scribes like Jessie Jo Dillon, pop bards like Amy Allen, and reggaeton men-at-arms like Edgar Barrera are just as up next.
—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
30 Jan. 2026
But there’s nothing slack, or lazy, or subjective, or self-indulgent, about the elaborate verse-craft of those bards.
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