A twist on cowboycamper's great thread on favourite bands...

What artists / bands do you think should be more recognized than they are? What lesser-known artists do you think your fellow forum members should know about.

A couple of suggestions...

Daniel Lanois - check out his playing on Shine.

Greg Brown - check out anything really, it's all great, but I particularly like Milk of the Moon, and Over and Out.

Don't know if he qualifies, since he does get a fair amount of pub, just not much in the mainstream. My vote is for Kelly Joe Phelps, both playing slide and fingerstyle.

Long list, shortened. Tuck Andress: otherworldly. John Mayer: from pop fluff (your body is a wonderland? Please.) to strat god. I've already pimped for Madeline Peyroux, but she comps like a champ and is the closest thing to Billie Holiday in fifty years. And what ever happened to the Archies? Not what they deserved, I reckon.

I'll echo Tom F.

Kelly Joe Phelps is incredible. If you ever have a chance to see him live, do so.

I'm also a big fan of Over The Rhine, mainly due to the female vocalist's pipes.

Mike

My favourite is Tim O'brien , great guitar, mando, cittern player fantastic vocalist and songwriter , he really has the whole package. Would love to see Tim here in the UK but Ireland is as near as he is coming to me this year.

Paris, another of my favorites is from your part of the world ... Kate Rusby, with John McCusker and crew. McCusker is an incredible instrumentalist and I find Kate's voice to be close to paralyzing. My wife and I came to England/Scotland a couple of years ago to see them at the Theatre-by-the-Lake in Keswick. Great show, and we had a blast.

Mike

In a better world Chris Smither,Chris Wall. Jesse Winchester,Delbert McClinton, and Guy Clark would be famous and we would never have heard of Britney Spears,Michael Jackson,or Billy Ray Cyrus.

... here here to the likes of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle (at least in the Americana songwriters vein)...but all in all and in every genre, so many under appreciated artists that fly under the radar...great thread and topic. Sonoman..John Mayer...? unless I'm missing something from your post...he's huge!!! he's everywhere you look and listen...pop-radio, magazine covers...bleedin' Starbucks...no doubt a real talent...but I wish he'd take the marbles out of his mouth when he sings...

Richard Thompson, Alex Chilton, and Lucinda Williams.

Mike,
I too am a huge fan of kate Rusby and John Mc Cusker although I wonder if they will continue to perform together now they have divorced. They were at the Cambridge Folk festival together but it will probably be difficult. Kate is due to tour the US in 2008 so maybe you will catch her there. Her voice is divine, my husband goes weak at the knees when she sings!

I like a lot of the Irish/British folks like Altan,Bothy Band,Kevin Burke,Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill,Martin Carthy and his family. To me these people fly under the radar but still are well known and respected.

And what about someone like Richard Thompson? In my opinion,the greatest guitarist of all time,not to mention songwriter and quirky singer. I don't think he's really that well-known outside of guitar freak world. I don't get it but it's so delicious that way and I think he's comfortable right where he is.

I'm constantly trying to turn the younger kids on to older bands like The Ozark Mountain Daredevils who are mostly known by the single Jackie Blue and it's one of their most quirky non-OMD type songs. It's amazing how these kids think Wilco and Son Volt invented Americana music. The Daredevils are more Americana than the whole Americana movement and you get the feeling that they are for real.

Paris, we talked to John for probably 30 minutes after their concert in Keswick. Super-nice guy. I didn't know they had divorced. He told us at the time that Kate would never come back to the U.S. because she'd developed a fear of flying ... perhaps she's going to swim.

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep checking her site!!

Mike