 | | Though Joshua Radin enjoyed singing during his childhood, the Cleveland native never intended to be a professional musician. |
 | | Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice launched his music career in the late-'90s with the hard-hitting indie rock outfit Juniper. |
 | | San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson has built up a loyal fan base through extensive touring. |
 | | Born in Eugene, Oregon, singer/songwriter Mat Kearney began his musical career 400 miles south at the Chico branch of California State University, where he studied literature and played on the soccer team. |
 | | British singer/songwriter David Gray had already released three overlooked albums by the time White Ladder (and its international breakthrough hit, "Babylon") brought his mix of acoustic instruments and electronic samples to the mainstream. |
 | | After making his introduction as a sensitive, acoustic-styled songwriter on 2001's Room for Squares, John Mayer steadily widened his approach over the subsequent years, encompassing everything from blues-rock to adult contemporary in the process. |
 | | Mixing the heartfelt angst of a singer/songwriter with the cocky brashness of a garage rocker, Ryan Adams is at once one of the few artists to emerge from the alt-country scene to achieve mainstream commercial success and the one who most strongly refused to be defined by the genre, leaping from one spot to another stylistically while following his increasingly prolific muse. |
 | | With a voice that recalls a huskier, sandpapery version of Van Morrison and Tim Buckley, Ray LaMontagne joins such artists as Iron & Wine in creating folk songs that are alternately lush and intimately earthy. |
 | | New Jersey native Pete Yorn took a rather unique route to singer/songwriter acclaim, gaining his first big break by providing the score to a Farrelly Brothers film. |
 | | Like Patty Griffin before him, singer/songwriter Howie Day emerged from the country quietude of Bangor, Maine, and entered both Boston's coffeehouse scene and the world of folk music. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Samuel Beam, who rose to prominence with a blend of whispered vocals and softly homespun indie folk, chose the moniker Iron & Wine after coming across a dietary supplement named "Beef Iron & Wine" while working on a film. |
 | | After surfacing in 2000 with the breakthrough single "Yellow," Coldplay quickly became one of the biggest bands of the new millennium, honing a mix of introspective Brit-pop and anthemic rock that landed the British quartet a near-permanent residence on record charts worldwide. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Rachael Yamagata grew up listening to Carole King, Roberta Flack, James Taylor, and the like, for music was the one thing in Yamagata's life that remained consistent. |
 | | Ari Hest became interested in music while still a teenager growing up in the Bronx. Though he'd taken piano lessons as a child, he taught himself how to play the guitar, mostly by listening to records from his parents' collection (Paul Simon) and alternative radio (Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews). |
 | | After failing to secure an international audience for nearly ten years, Snow Patrol broke into the mainstream with 2003's Final Straw, a mega-selling album that showcased the band's fondness for epic, melancholic rock. |
 | | Before Jack Johnson became the 21st century kingpin of beachside pop/rock, he was a champion surfer on the professional route. |
 | | Keane's piano-driven pop/rock is created by vocalist Tom Chaplin, drummer Richard Hughes, and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley, three childhood friends from the small town of Battle in East Sussex, England. |
 | | Consider Josh Kelley a fan of Napster. The Georgia native was studying at the University of Mississippi and writing songs on the side when, in a happy Internet accident, some MP3s of his work made their way onto Napster and into the hands of an A&R rep for Hollywood Records. |
 | | Jason Mraz hails from Mechanicsville, Virginia, where the singer/songwriter grew up amidst the sounds of the Dave Matthews Band and local roots musicians the Agents of Good Roots. |
 | | With his laid-back vocal delivery and acoustic songwriting, Amos Lee draws inspiration from soul music, contemporary jazz, and '70s folk artists like James Taylor. |
 | | Indie pop/rocker Landon Pigg received his informal musical education via his father's record collection. |
 | | A singer/songwriter whose lush, theatrical pop harked back to the traditions of Tin Pan Alley, cabaret, and even opera, Rufus Wainwright was born in 1973; the son of folk music luminaries Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, his parents divorced while he was a child, and he was raised by his mother in Montreal. |
 | | Youthful West Coast singer/songwriter Brett Dennen first drew attention in 2004 with the single "Desert Sunrise. |
 | | Years before "I Don't Want to Be" propelled him to pop/rock success, songwriter Gavin DeGraw began honing his piano skills at the age of eight, followed by his participation in several cover bands with his older brother in upstate New York. |
 | | Augustana's music is the heartland equivalent of Coldplay and Keane, with a touch of mid-'90s adult alternative throwback (think Counting Crows or the Wallflowers) also peppering the band's rootsy, piano-based rock. |
 | | With her piano-fueled songwriting, witty wordplay, and slight vocal vibrato, Ingrid Michaelson carries the tradition of the female singer/songwriter into the 21st century. |
 | | Singer/pianist Ben Folds (born September 12, 1966, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is best known as the leader of the power pop trio Ben Folds Five, but has also struck out on his own as a solo artist. |
 | | Born and raised in Liberty, MO, near Kansas City, Matt Wertz grew up wanting to be a shoe designer, but when he started writing songs his freshman year of college, he realized that it was actually music that he wanted to pursue. |
 | | Singer/songwriters Deb Talan and Steve Tannen, both of whom had released solo material before banding together to form folk-pop duo the Weepies, first met at one of Tannen's shows in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
 | | Death Cab for Cutie's rise from small-time solo project to Grammy-nominated rock band is one of indie rock's greatest success stories. |
 | | Although born in Nebraska, singer/songwriter Josh Rouse moved to various cities throughout his childhood and subsequent musical career, driven at first by his father's military career and later by his desire to take inspiration from different environments. |
 | | In much the same way that José González hails from Sweden and not Spain, Paolo Nutini is not a smooth Italian pop star, but rather a soul-influenced adult alternative songwriter from Paisley, Scotland. |
 | | Though she was born in Seattle, songwriter Alison Sudol spent most of her life in Los Angeles, having moved there with her mother when she was five years old. |
 | | Combining funky, groove-laden soul with handcrafted acoustic folk-rock, Ben Harper enjoyed cult status during the course of the '90s before gaining wider attention toward the decade's end. |
 | | Born in Huntington Beach, California, in 1982, Matt Costa received his first guitar at age 12. While he was always interested in music, even playing in a band in high school, Costa's first love was skateboarding. |
 | | A classic guitar pop group almost nine years in the making, Albuquerque, New Mexico's the Shins began in 1997 as the side project of singer/songwriter and guitarist James Mercer's primary band, Flake. |
 | | Aqualung is the brainchild of British songwriter Matt Hales, who discovered his love of melodic pop music while listening to songs at his parents' Southampton record store. |
 | | Since he was the son of cult songwriter Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley faced more expectations and pre-conceived notions than most singer/songwriters. |
 | | As a rule, group efforts are normally launched before a solo career -- not after a solo career is in full swing. |
 | | As the singer, guitarist, and main songwriter of Australia's Men at Work, Colin Hay was responsible for penning several of the quirkiest pop hits of the early '80s. |
 | | By pitching their music somewhere between the arena-friendly style of U2 and the mature pop/rock of bands like Maroon 5 and Counting Crows, the Fray rose to commercial prominence with their 2005 debut, How to Save a Life. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Christopher Carrabba became the poster boy for a new generation of emo fans in the early 2000s, having left behind his former band (the post-hardcore Christian outfit Further Seems Forever) to concentrate on vulnerable, introspective solo musings. |
 | | While his name might not be on the tip of everyone's tongue in his homeland, folk-leaning singer/songwriter Josh Ritter has benefited from numerous positive reviews and a loyal fan base. |
 | | Leslie Feist -- best known simply as Feist -- was a respected member of the Canadian alternative music community before becoming an international pop sensation with the success for her albums Let It Die and The Reminder. |
 | | The celebrated folk-punk singer/songwriter Elliott Smith rose from indie obscurity to mainstream success in 1997 on the strength of "Miss Misery," his Academy Award-nominated song from the film Good Will Hunting. |
 | | A singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Detroit-born Sufjan Stevens started venturing into the music world while attending Hope College as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band based in Holland, Michigan. |
 | | With a flair for poignant ballads and pop/rock singles, Missy Higgins became one of Australia's most popular artists during the early 21st century. |
 | | Daniel Powter, the Canadian who stormed the European charts in 2005 with his single "Bad Day" (from his 2005 self-titled release), was born and raised in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, picking up the violin at the age of four. |
 | | Few stories underscore the radical changes experienced by the post-millennial music industry than that of Eric Hutchinson. |
 | | A veteran of New York's anti-folk scene, songwriter Regina Spektor makes quirky, highly eclectic, but always personal music. |
