 | | Possessing both a soulful singing voice that harks back to the masters of the style like Donny Hathaway and Bill Withers and a laid back, largely acoustic sensibility that fits in nicely with singer-songwriter contemporaries like John Mayer and Jack Johnson, Chris Pierce spans musical generations. |
 | | L.A.-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Shane Alexander has drawn comparisons to everyone from Jeff Buckley to Art Garfunkel and Jackson Browne, thanks to his beautifully emotive vocal style and his haunting, finely crafted songs. |
 | | Paper Round Kid is actually London, U.K., guitarist, singer, and songwriter Darren Filkins. In the late '80s, Filkins was the lead guitarist for Seymour, the band that eventually morphed into Blur, but he walked away from the band (and the music business) when he was only 19 years old to try his hand as a professional photographer. |
 | | Singer and songwriter Crosby Loggins is the son of singer and songwriter Kenny Loggins (of Loggins & Messina fame), and he grew up in Santa Barbara, CA, in a home frequented by his father's famous musician friends, including the likes of Jackson Browne, Michael McDonald, Graham Nash, and others. |
 | | With her powerful, soulful voice and her incisive songwriting skills, Dana Parish attracted a lot of critical attention. |
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 | | The uniquely named Shotgun Honeymoon was born in Lexington, KY, although his acoustic-based songwriting didn't take root until his college days at Florida State University. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Matt Turk was a student of Pete Seeger and has performed with Fiona Apple, Jeff Buckley, Blues Traveler, and Dave Matthews Band, among others. |
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 | | Singer/songwriter Joe Mannix started off doing rock-friendly stuff in the late '90s with his punk-pop outfit, Oral Groove, and the more rootsy Mannix. |
 | | Actor, self-taught musician (piano and guitar), and singer Terrence Howard was born March 11, 1969, in Chicago, IL, but grew up in Cleveland, OH, the grandson of New York stage actor Minnie Gentry. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Jonathan Clay began penning original material as a high-school student in western Texas, eventually arriving at a gentle, easygoing sound reminiscent of Matt Nathanson and John Mayer. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Marié Digby is perhaps best known for posting a clip of herself performing an acoustic version of Rihanna's "Umbrella" on YouTube. |
 | | British singer/songwriter Findlay Brown spent his formative years bare-knuckle fighting in the East Ridings region of Yorkshire. |
 | | One accusation no one can level against Eivør Pálsadóttir is that she's stayed in a rut. In fact, there's been such a variety to her music that it's impossible to predict her next move. |
 | | Providing a distaff version of the easygoing, sun-and-surf folk-rock of Jack Johnson or Ben Harper, Hayley Sales also rates comparison to more musically expansive alternative folkies like Erin McKeown and even Suzanne Vega. |
 | | Singer/songwriter/guitarist William Tell was born and raised in southern California. His family had an interest in gospel music, and his father, a minister, taught him to play guitar. |
 | | A native of Brisbane, Australia, singer/songwriter Shane Nicholson first gained public attention as the lead-singer/guitarist for the rock band Pretty Violet Stain. |
 | | Though he spent most of his formative years in the grim surroundings of 1980s Belfast, singer/songwriter Foy Vance's musical vision is the product of an entirely different sort of nervous tension -- the cross-racial friction, harmony, and disharmony that gave rise to jazz, blues, and soul in the American South, where Vance, the son of a traveling church minister, spent the pivotal first five years of his life. |
 | | New York City-based singer/songwriter Alex Nackman self-released his debut album, Good Impressions, at the age of 20 in 2003 and began touring to support it, eventually opening for such acts as the Roots, Norah Jones, Buddy Guy, Glen Phillips, the Pat McGee Band, and Ari Hest. |
 | | Casey Neill is a Portland, Oregon-based singer-songwriter who takes his cues from the political protest-oriented modern-day punk-folk of Billy Bragg, as well as Celtic music and poetic singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan. |
 | | A singer and songwriter who knew her calling by the age of 15, Hilary McRae would be one of the first "developing artists" to release an album on the Starbucks and Concord Music Group's label, Hear Music. |
 | | An Australian born singer, Bec Lavelle was best known for her work in the television program McLeod's Daughters, which spawned a series of highly popular soundtrack albums featuring vocals by Lavelle herself. |
 | | Singer/songwriter George Simon Stanford honed his musical skills at Philadelphia's University of the Arts. |
 | | English singer/songwriter Sheila Nicholls first attracted attention in the early '90s, when she performed with the New York City-based group Sheila Nicholls and the Splendid Frock. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Pete Droge's career was helped immeasurably by his friendship with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready. |
 | | Singer/songwriter keyboardist/guitarist Tim Finn was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand. Influenced by not only British Invasion acts like the Beatles, the Move, and the Kinks, but also his Catholic upbringing and the communal singalongs of the native Maori people, Finn founded the '70s art-rock turned new wave band Split Enz, leading the band through several albums to moderate international success. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Anthony Miller, aka AM, grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and in the suburbs of New Orleans before he began writing songs in college. |
 | | Singer/songwriter/actor Teddy Geiger makes heartfelt, contemporary pop. When he started out, his raspy vocals and sophisticated lyrics disguised the fact that the budding pop sensation wasn't even old enough to vote. |
 | | Brinck is an English-language singer/songwriter from Denmark who made his solo album debut in 2008. Born Niels Brinck in 1975 in Åbyhøj, a suburb of Aarhus, Denmark, he enjoyed a year of breakout success in 2008, not only as a solo artist but also as a songwriter for others. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Neil Finn has consistently proven his knack for crafting high-quality songs that combine irresistible melodies with meticulous lyrical detail, from his beginnings as the precocious junior member of Split Enz, through his leadership of Crowded House, and, finally, in his distinguished solo career. |
 | | San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson has built up a loyal fan base through extensive touring. |
 | | Though he's never been able to record a hit of his own, singer/songwriter Jules Shear has recorded several albums of highly accessible, hit-worthy material, and as a testament to his abilities, he's penned hits for others, including "All Through the Night" for Cyndi Lauper and "If She Knew What She Wants" for the Bangles. |
 | | 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). |
 | | The acid-pop singer/songwriter born Leslie Phillips earned the nonsensical nickname "Sam" as a child; only when she was recording her debut album did she finally hear of the other, more renowned Sam Phillips and learn of his legacy as the founder of Sun Records, the label which launched the careers of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. |
 | | New York singer/songwriter Jo Davidson reflects a soulful disposition as a solo artist, for writing has always been her passion. |
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 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Youthful West Coast singer/songwriter Brett Dennen first drew attention in 2004 with the single "Desert Sunrise. |
 | | Raised in Texas on a musical diet of Antonio Carlos Jobim, James Taylor, and oldies radio, singer/songwriter Emily Elbert studied piano as a child before moving on to guitar when she was 15. |
 | | 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. |
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 | | 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. |
 | | A proudly idiosyncratic singer and songwriter who embraces an eclectic range of musical influences and isn't afraid to be nakedly confessional in her music, Sophie B. |
 | | Few stories underscore the radical changes experienced by the post-millennial music industry than that of Eric Hutchinson. |
 | | Anointed "the new Dylan" upon his recording debut, folk-rock singer/songwriter Steve Forbert was born in Meridian, MS, in 1954. |
 | | Katie Noonan's parents, opera singer Maggie Noonan and journalist and singer Brian Noonan, met on the set of the performance TV program Showcase (she won the judges' vote; he the viewers'). |
 | | Amy Macdonald is a Scottish singer/songwriter who, at the age of 20, began topping the European charts with her Celtic-tinged folk music. |
