 | | Hailing from South London, Florence Mary Leontine Welch writes songs that occupy the same confessional territory as gossip-loving, genre-bending contemporaries like Amy Winehouse, Kate Nash, Adele, and Lily Allen and the moody, classic art rock of Kate Bush, blending pop, soul, and baroque arrangements into a sound that earned the young artist considerable buzz in 2007. |
 | | Much can be said about the late Amy Winehouse, one of the U.K.'s flagship vocalists during the 2000s. |
 | | Emerging during the same boom of retro U.K.-based singers that launched Amy Winehouse, Duffy distinguished herself with a melodic, vintage voice that brought to mind such '60s artists as Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark. |
 | | When the U.K. press began dubbing Adele "the next Amy Winehouse" in late 2007, the hype didn't touch upon the heavy singer/songwriter influence found in the Londoner's music. |
 | | Molly Jenson, a singer/songwriter whose sparkling, heartfelt songs nod to Sheryl Crow and Aimee Mann, began to make a name for herself in small venues throughout California in the early 2000s. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Born in 1975, Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall -- not short for anything, the KT is just an alternate spelling of Katie -- comes from the quaint university town of St. |
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 | | New York City born and bred singer/songwriter Patti Rothberg got a lot of attention for her 1996 major label debut, Between the 1 and 9 (EMI Records USA). |
 | | 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. |
 | | Inspired by folk, rock, country, and bluegrass, the London-based Mumford & Sons feature singer/guitarist/drummer Marcus Mumford, vocalist and banjo/Dobro player Winston Marshall, vocalist/keyboardist Ben Lovett, and vocalist/bassist Ted Dwane. |
 | | Amy Macdonald is a Scottish singer/songwriter who, at the age of 20, began topping the European charts with her Celtic-tinged folk music. |
 | | Katie Herzig struck out on her own after eight years as the frontwoman for Newcomers Home. Herzig was no stranger to the solo game, having released her first solo album, Watch Them Fall, in 2004, so it was no surprise when, following the dissolution of Newcomers Home in 2006, Herzig put together a second album, Weightless, which was released that summer. |
 | | New Jersey native Charlotte Sometimes may not have started as a singer/songwriter, but she has always been a performer. |
 | | New Jersey native Jessie Baylin began plotting her songwriting career at an early age, penning poems while still in elementary school and -- at the ripe age of 13 -- singing for customers at the Fire Sight Inn, a local jazz bar that her parents owned. |
 | | Before launching her dual careers as pop-minded songwriter and television actress, Kate Voegele grew up outside Cleveland in the suburban locale of Bay Village, OH, where she began singing in her church choir at age ten. |
 | | British singer Joss Stone was only 16 years old when she hit the mainstream in 2003, armed with a powerful voice and a vintage, soul-based sound. |
 | | The Lumineers, a folk-rock trio out of Denver, Colorado, deliver an acoustic-based Americana sound that touches a lot of stylistic bases, from folk to gospel to heartland rock and the narrative end of country, all with interesting rhythmic twists and turns. |
 | | Putting a 21st century spin on the hip late-'60s world of Burt Bacharach, Sly Stone, and Barbarella, Denmark's the Asteroids Galaxy Tour had barely let their demo out into the world before fame came calling thanks to Amy Winehouse and the iPod family. |
 | | Before he formed his band the Burden in 2005, singer-songwriter and guitar/Dobro player Rocco Deluca had performed widely as a solo artist (opening for Taj Mahal and John Lee Hooker, among others). |
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 | | 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. |
 | | As a leading voice on the music scene in Austin, TX, guitarist Monte Montgomery slowly gained national recognition for his amazing dexterity, fluid harmonics, percussive dynamics, and melodic sensibility. |
 | | Pianist/vocalist Alissa Moreno is a heartfelt singer/songwriter with a knack for intimate and melodic contemporary pop songs. |
 | | Lissie Maurus was raised in the riverside town of Rock Island, IL, and she drew upon those blue-collar Midwestern origins to create her own form of indie folk music. |
 | | 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'). |
 | | It’s too facile to call the Black Keys counterparts of the White Stripes: they share several surface similarities -- their names are color-coded, they hail from the Midwest, they’re guitar-and-drum blues-rock duos -- but the Black Keys are their own distinct thing, a tougher, rougher rock band with a purist streak that never surfaces in the Stripes. |
 | | With her omnivorous musical tastes and cheeky attitude, London-based pop singer/songwriter Lily Allen made a name for herself almost as soon as she released her demos on the Internet. |
 | | Born in Waitsfield, Vermont, Grace Potter grew up in a family that encouraged her artistic pursuits in areas from music to theater, the latter of which she was studying at St. |
 | | Born Zsuzsanna Eva Ward in Abington, Pennsylvania, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, piano, and harmonica) ZZ Ward spent her childhood in the small town of Roseburg, Oregon, splitting her listening time between her father's blues collection and her brother's hip-hop records, a blend that would be a big part of her later sound and style. |
 | | Indie rock trio Foster the People make atmospheric, psychedelic, and dance-oriented pop. Formed in Los Angeles in 2009, the band features keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Mark Foster, bassist Cubbie Fink, and drummer Mark Pontius. |
 | | As flamboyant as their name indicates, Clairy Browne & the Bangin' Rackettes are, at heart, an entertaining retro-soul band with inspirations that include jump blues and doo wop. |
 | | Northern Irish singer/songwriter Juliet Turner has some hints of the old standbys in her folk-inflected music: Nick Drake, Carole King, even a bit of Kirsty MacColl in her vocals. |
 | | Chicago singer/songwriter Alice Peacock was immersed in performing at an early age. Her grandfather Fritz Gnass was an actor in Germany, appearing in many films including Fritz Lang's M; her grandmother was a cabaret composer; her father acted in repertory theater in the 1960s; and her mother acted in film and television. |
 | | Soulful Tennessee-based singer/songwriter Susan Marshall began her music career as a classical singer before becoming a successful backup vocalist for the likes of Lenny Kravitz, the Afghan Whigs, Cat Power, and Lucinda Williams. |
 | | London, England musician Alex Clare grew up listening to his father’s jazz records, was drawn to blues and soul (Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder), and eventually drum‘n’bass and U. |
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 | | A solo project of Aaron Bruno, AWOLNATION began as a creative outlet for the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. |
 | | Las Vegas-based indie rockers Imagine Dragons formed in Provo, Utah in 2009. Like their desert-born stadium rock contemporaries the Killers, Imagine Dragons blend engaging, synth-based dance-pop with emotionally charged, Brit-pop-inspired alt-rock. |
 | | Sultry vocalist and pianist Norah Jones developed her unique blend of jazz and traditional vocal pop with hints of bluesy country and contemporary folk due in large part to her unique upbringing. |
 | | Like simpatico songwriter Lily Allen, Kate Nash launched her career on MySpace, where her piano-driven pop songs and lyrics (delivered in a distinctive London accent) found a number of listeners. |
 | | After winning the nationwide 2010 battle-of-the-bands competition Musiktilraunir in their native Iceland, six-piece chamber pop group Of Monsters and Men were hailed as "the new Arcade Fire" in Rolling Stone magazine. |
 | | Northern Ireland would appear an unlikely location to give birth to a vaudeville-obsessed bohemian singer poet, but try telling that to Lisburn (near Belfast) native Peter Wilson, better known by his stage name Duke Special. |
 | | Pop/rock songwriter Kina Grannis began exploring music as a child in Mission Viejo, CA. After spending her younger years performing in front of her stuffed animals and singing with her sisters, Grannis discovered her aunt's guitar at age 15. |
 | | Led by Oakland, California native Ricky Reed, Wallpaper. fuses hip-hop, pop, and dance music in a carefree, occasionally pointed fashion. |
 | | A former model for Quicksilver's Roxy label, singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman grew up in the San Diego area. |
 | | Provo, Utah's poppy dance-punk band Neon Trees features vocalist/keyboardist Tyler Glenn, guitarist Chris Allen, bassist Branden Campbell, and drummer/vocalist Elaine Bradley. |
 | | A singer/songwriter born to Jewish and Tunisian parents, Yael Naïm first hit the pop-music scene in 2001, but her debut was not what she had hoped for, and it wasn't until 2007 that her follow-up appeared. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Fiona Apple defied categorization or any easy career path, almost running the pattern in reverse, opening her career as a highly touted and popular alternative singer/songwriter, then transitioning into a cult artist. |
![Extended Play [Itunes] Album Cover](http://images.slacker.com/isv1/album/v1/5515724/aol/1/center/5,0/70.jpg "Extended Play [Itunes] Album Cover")
