Cardiff often pays tribute to his favourite songwriters in his performances and on his albums. In 2010, Cardiff released the album "Mothers & Daughters", featuring 11 covers of songs written by some of his favourite female songwriters. These include Ani Difranco, Cyndi Lauper, Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, Patty Griffin, Sinéad O'Connor, Björk, Indigo Girls and Suzanne Vega. Cardiff's album "Fistful of Flowers", released in 2005, features his version of songs written by Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Martin Sexton and others. In 2018, Cardiff released a five-song album of exclusively Bob Dylan covers.