Pierce Pettis has developed a reputation over a 35-year career as being a songwriter's songwriter. He got his first big break in 1979 when folk music icon Joan Baez recorded his song "The Song At The End of the Movie." Pettis then became a vital figure in what came to be called the "Fast Folk" movement of the 1980s, along with artists such as Shawn Colvin and Suzanne Vega.