Singer songwriter recommendations? (1 Viewer)

[Philip Hamm]

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!!! I am listening to it right now as a matter of fact. However.... I have to admit I'm an extremely big fan of Maria. I love everything she's ever done.

 

[Zen Butler]

a second for
Leonard Cohen

PJ Harvey (can't recommend her enough)
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Iron & Wine
Heather Nova
Bruce Springsteen's new album is surprisingly good.
Sufjan Stevens
Beth Orton
Aimee Mann

some good "older" stuff:

Neil Young (Harvest)
Johnny Cash
Loretta Lynn
Willie Nelson (Red-Headed Stranger)
The Carpenters first album
Patti Smith (Horses)

 

[AricB]

Not sure if they really fit the profile here but I'd check out Frank Black's Honeycomb when it comes out in a few months, recorded with a bunch of Nashville greats.

and also Morphine's-The Night.

 

[Julia]

Wow, this is a great list of artists. It's going to take me a while to get through them. I'm off to compile a list and search for clips to listen to.

It's weird seeing Matt Nathanson's name on that list! I went to college with him about 10 years ago. He was the big man on campus. Glad to see he made it, he was good even then. I definitely am gonna check that out.

Over the weekend I found this pianist/singer named Richard Swift. Anyone heard of him? I'd post a link to the site, but I'm not allowed yet.

 

[NickSo]

Iron & wine

 

[FeisalK]

Richard Thompson http://www.richardthompson-music.com and http://www.richardthompsonforcompletists.com/

heres the Richard Swift site http://www.richardswift.us/

 

[Jimmy Nugent]

Joe Henry
Barry Adamson
Elvis of the Costello variety
David Baerwald (Half of David+David)
Aztec Camera (Roddy Frame)
The Beautiful South (Sickly sweet melodies with witty acerbic lyrics- Great Fun!)
Bright Eyes (Currently enjoying-"I'm Wide Awake, Its Morning)
Bryan Ferry
Chris Isaak
Chuck Prophet
Bob Schnieder
Daniel Lanois

I could go on...

Jimmy

 

[Julia]

This is great, I had no idea I'd get this kind of response. Y'all have some good taste, so far I've liked almost everything I've listened to (which is a pitiful portion of the list I've compiled from your responses).

 

[Runar_R]

Here's a couple more:

Sondre Lerche Elegant pop-music.

Badly drawn boy Funny, sad, and for some reason his songs reminds me of summer. You've heard his songs if you saw "About a boy".

 

[Rachael B]

Livingston Taylor...his first album is a GEM! James brother is great in his own right.

Karla Bonoff, a much cover songstress who sings well herself. Pick any of her albums, they're all good.

Colleen Sexton's Greatest Find, her first and only album so far appeals to me.

Joni Mitchell, her first half dozen albums are all classics!

Julia Fordham, CONCRETE LOVE is really solid, pun intended, and it's on SA-CD.

Get somethin' by Rany Newman! ...or maybe Steve Goodman.

Folks have loaded ya up, so I'll stop there.

 

[Rachael B]

Oh, oh, oh, do check out Grant-Lee Phillips latest album VIRGINIA CREEPER. These might be the most infectious songs I've heard lately? He's got a new band with a kuntry rock tilt. His Mobilize album, available on SA-CD is an excellent one-man band album but rock oriented.

I just picked up Grant-Lee Buffalo, his old group, to see how he sounded back then, but haven't spun it up yet...

 

[Pamela]

I gave it a couple of spins, but it didn't grab me. I think I will listen to it more this weekend. I'm a big fan too! I think I just got used to the "Life is Sweet" vibe.

Julia, along the lines of Sondre Lerche, you should also check out Teitur.

There's also:
Ron Sexsmith
Jason Falkner
Marc Cohn
Matthew Sweet
Pete Yorn

 

[StephenA]

Jim Croce and Harry Chapin are good ones to look into as well.

 

[Clint B]

Julia, that's cool! I met him earlier this year after he opened for Tori Amos in Dallas. Really nice guy, and he signed my CD. I, too, hope he "goes places."

I have some other recommendations, with the websites for each artist:

--David Wilcox (a "folkish" singer out of North Carolina who is a superb guitarist and has excellent, uplifting music)

--Colin Boyd (a singer from Dallas who has a folk/country/rock type sound...you can hear samples of his stuff on his website)

--Cary Pierce (another singer from Dallas who's more of a folk-rocker...in addition to his own stuff, check out www.jackopierce.com for the band Jackopierce, a band that he recently reformed with his buddy Jack O'Neill)

That should be enough for now. Happy listening!

 

[RichP]

Seconded!

I also agree with Jack Johnson, the new CD is fantastic.

You may want to seek out Mike Errico as well. He's a friend of mine and is poised to break the big time any day now

His site is right here.

 

[MarkMel]

Try listening to Matt Johnson/The The.

 

[Will_B]

I can't believe I forgot to mention Paul Westerberg's return-to-form with the albums "Come Feel Me Tremble" and to a lesser extent "Folker". And his two-fer called "Stereo/Mono" is rather good.

But avoid some of his early solo pop albums, they suck (if you want to sample his bad early pop albums, there's a best-of called "Besterberg" from Rhino -- but it doesn't include anything from "Come Feel Me Tremble" nor from "Folker").

 

[DavidBC]

For the Lucinda Williams/Emmylou Harris crowd:
Carolyn Mark
Neko Case
Shelby Lynne's "I Am Shelby Lynne", "Identity Crisis" and "Suit Yourself"
Rae Spoon
Gram Parsons (duh)

Other singer/songwriters I like that I don't think were mentioned:
Joe Henry
Jim White
Vic Chesnutt
Julie Newsom
A.C. Newman (solo stuff from New Pornographers front-man)
Marianne Faithfull (her recent albums "Before The Poison" and "Kissin Time" are wonderful)

I second the recommendations for Sondre Lerche and Josh Ritter (Joan Baez has a great version of "Wings" for those interested). Actually while we're at it, "Dark Chords on a Big Guitar" is Baez' best album in decades!

Joni Mitchell's early stuff is classic, but her trio of 90s originals (Night Ride Home, Turbulent Indigo & Taming The Tiger) are swell, too. I hope she comes out of retirement.

 

[Runar_R]

I just realised that neither of the Finn brothers are mentioned in this thread. They are brilliant, either together or in their own solo-mode (though I prefer Neil to Tim).

 

[Rachael B]

The past two weeks I have been just infatuated with Roddy Frame's (former Aztec Camera frontman) SURF album. It's just him and his acoustic guitar and some wonderful compositions. The album is so natural sounding. It seems like there's little or no vocal dubbing and little, if any, EQ-ing.

The songs just make the album though. There's atleast a half dozem gems and no real barkers. The title song is damn good but several other beat it, IMO. When I listen to the album I sometimes picture how some of these tunes would sound like with backing musicans. Sometimes my imaginationn sez purr-dy good but I like the album just the way it is. I hope he stays a one-man-band for awhile if it means more albums as delicious as SURF...

This album seems like a natural for this thread...