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Which obscure artist would you recommend?

robobxman

robobxman

Roll me away tonight...
This might be giving up your secret, but if you had to recommend just one artist to a music fan - something he or she most likely has not heard - which artist would it be? Assume any genre is game, and that your recommendation would stand on its own with someone who may like one type of music but appreciates all types.

Of course, I'm sort of describing myself, but my wife and I recently met a couple who shares our love for great music. I rattled off a few artists while our new friend Jim scribbled them on a spare napkin.

My Recommendation

Though she is more known in the last few years than before her release, "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise," my recommendation would be Bettye LaVette.
 
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West, Bruce, and Laing. Any band with the immensely talented Jack Bruce is good. But they only have 2 albums.
 
robobxman said:
This might be giving up your secret, but if you had to recommend just one artist to a music fan - something he or she most likely has not heard - which artist would it be?...
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Tom Jans

Not a secret, been trying to spread his musical talents since the late 70s. He died young. I have all his albums and couple of back ups and a hard to get, limited Japanese import mini album CD. His early music was folk and his latter more rock, country, and a couple of songs infused with a little bit of soul.

His album Eyes of an Only Child is excellent and timeless.
 
I'll toss out Richard Buckner, one of my favorite artists, and nothing better in modern times than his 90s trilogy...

Yea, listening to the first of the trilogy right now, Bloomed, which was probably my most listened to CD over the last couple years. I kind of rediscovered it after picking up his latest Meadow early last year, then digging out the debut from 1995 on DejaDisc (or Glitterhouse in Europe) and being amazed all over again how great it is, music, performance, musicians, recording, mastering, one of my favorites of the 90s (but for sound quality I'm talking about the great sounding original, not the later loud and compressed Ryko remaster with the bonus tracks).

The next one Devotion + Doubt was the first of his short two record trip to the major labels, but still sounds great too, nice recording down at Wavelab with lots of dynamics, mastered quiet so you have to turn it way up, but then you are rewarded with all of those little details that give the music texture and color and life, and another set of top notch players with backup by the Calexico / Giant Sand guys and Lloyd Maines. This is a chronicle of romantic disintegration, the divorce record, painful but hard to resist for the thought provoking words and compelling music. And always that voice. Probably my favorite of his, which also makes it one of my favorites period.

And then to complete the trilogy, Since. More of a rocker, a little louder mastering so not quite up there with the first two for great sound quality, but he might've even made a bit of money off it later from the VW commercial a few years ago during the Olympics that used the sad lullaby "Ariel Ramirez". Caused quite a few music lovin' people to jump on the internet to search for who it was. They changed it a bit for the ad, edited it to make it less about the pain, and the loss, and the escape in drugs, but it's still a beautiful song in any form, even while reverberating around in my head. On a sidenote, the title highlights one of my favorite modern classical composers as well, especially the original Philips LP of Misa Criolla from the early 60s conducted by Ramirez (though I do really enjoy the CD recorded in 1987 with José Carreras as tenor soloist).

hey there thunderhead, I heard you've seen a little rain
did you let your angel burn out like a pipe load under a flame?
I know we've all had our visions, but we've been moonless too
I guess I shoulda known by now, we'd just slip away somehow

And if you don't believe me, click here for a silly blogger guy that sounds almost just like me (and like he says, D+D is one of the best ever)...

Reaching away goodbye rye,
Been bled on down the road,
But when the buzz was over,
Man, it was getting cold

:yes:
 
Here's you obscure...

A little known band out of Dallas Texas I just saw last weekend.. REALLY great band, strong, powerful, and kind of span the realm of what music is.. Kind of "popish" and what you might expect to hear on the radio, but listen closer, and you know you won't...

American Zero's... OH.. plus they use a talkbox and the bass player playes this HUGE Rickenbacher F body bass (electric).. they are just too cool, but I hear splitting up soon.

I got both of their CD's and the wife loves them, and I can get into them too...

Here's their myspace page with music.. turn it up..
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=5043584
 
onepixel said:
Tom Jans

Not a secret, been trying to spread his musical talents since the late 70s. He died young. I have all his albums and couple of back ups and a hard to get, limited Japanese import mini album CD. His early music was folk and his latter more rock, country, and a couple of songs infused with a little bit of soul.

His album Eyes of an Only Child is excellent and timeless.
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So... I've promoted Tom Jans about a half dozen times here on AK. Has anyone actually tried his music?
 
Dave Alvin, (formerly of The Blasters), Blackjack David, and the album Whites Off Earth Now by Cowboy Junkies are both excellent recordings.
 
Depends on what you're looking for but you might check out : Shake Some Action by The Flamin' Groovies. Strange Man, Changed Man by Bram Tchaikovsky. Looks like I'm ready for some "Power Pop"!
 
Sin Sisimouth w/ Ros Soreysothea-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_Sisamouth

Sin was a guitar slinging pop artist in mid 60s cambodia; he partnered with many, but with the unbelievable soaring voice of Ros Soreysothea, he really found his true counterpart.

the music is a mashup of American Rock, R&B, soul and surf, with Soreysothea's voice soaring over the the top w/traditional Cambodian style melodicism and hooks like you won't believe. the american band Dengue Fever is a Sin Sisamouth revival type group, working in the same space, with developments as the original Cambodian pop stars. this music blew my mind earlier this year and i listened constantly for several weeks. Sisamouth and co. were crushed by the Khmer Rouge; their music was discoverd on cassettes by americans scouring the bins in public markets in Cambodia for interesting music. check it out
 
This thread is a real mother lode ... I subscribe to eMusic and already have found Dave Alvin, American Zeros, Shout Out Louds, Maia Sharp, and a couple Patty Larkin songs. I'll have to dig deeper to find the rest.
 
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