Another thought came to me, but it was too late to get it in the above post.
My hunger and search for superior songs is most efficiently addressed by going straight to songwriters themselves, many of whom are not in a band or group. John Hiatt made his first appearance as a member of a group named White Duck. He wrote only two songs on their In Season album on Uni Records (released in 1972). The group went nowhere, and the other members were never heard from again. John Hiatt evolved into one of our best songwriters, a favorite of mine (and of his peers).
A fortunate trait of great songwriters is that they most often have excellent taste in musicians. So the recordings they make contain not only superior songwriting, but great musicianship as well. It was on the early albums of Ry Cooder and Randy Newman that I became aware of the L.A. studio musicians such as Jim Keltner
In the 1990’s I was living in Sherman Oaks, CA, as was songwriter/singer Billy Swan (writer of "I Can Help"). We became slightly acquainted, and I learned Billy had long served as Chris Kristofferson’s bandleader. He recounted to me the tale of Chris relenting to the pressure he was receiving to add a drummer to his road band. An audition was set up, and Billy said the guy (whose name he didn’t disclose) played like he was in a Rock band, "bludgeoning" his way through all Chris’ songs. Totally musically inappropriate, playing with no musical taste or sensitivity..
In the late-60’s (or was it the early-70’s?) I went to see Cajun singer/fiddler Doug Kershaw at a club in San Francisco. I loved his The Cajun Way album on Warner Brothers Records, recorded in Nashville with great musicians. When he and his very long-haired 3-pc. band kicked into their first song, I was flabbergasted: the band sounded like Blue Cheer! BC’s debut album is about the worst pos I’ve ever heard.
San Francisco is well known for it’s 1960’s Rock bands, which included both some of the best and some of the worst I’ve ever heard. Moby Grape were fantastic, Big Brother were terrible. But Blue Cheer? Ay carumba! The worst of the worst. Doug, baby, what were ya thinkin'?!