The ultimate expression of the DIY ethic, iconoclastic singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco burst onto the contemporary folk scene while still in her teens. Her confrontational lyrics, aggressive, percussive acoustic guitar playing, and unconventional imag…

First appearing on the scene in the mid 1980s, the Indigo Girls were the first lesbian alternative folk duo. Their drop-dead-gorgeous harmonies and uncompromising DIY aesthetic garnered many fans who normally wouldn't have been caught dead listening …

b. 16 March 1964, Old Town, Maine, USA. This US singer-songwriter made her name on the Boston/Cambridge folk scene in the mid-90s, leading to a major label recording contract with A&M Records. Griffin began writing songs as a teenager but at this poi…

The honey-voiced Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan has ascended from modest success in the U.S. and her native Nova Scotia to international stardom. Her music is accessible enough for the masses, yet serious enough to strike a strong chord w…

Rising from the ashes of the amusingly named rock band Y Kant Tori Read, Tori Amos debuted with LITTLE EARTHQUAKES in 1992, a stunning set of brutally honest and emotionally wrought songs that recalled Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush without being slavis…

Joni Mitchell emerged as a darling of the late 1960s folk scene as a lyrically gifted songwriter and honey-voiced golden girl. In the '70s, she went on to incorporate jazz and confessional pop-rock into her musical vision, ultimately creating a poeti…

b. 1979, Fredricksburg, Virginia, USA. One of a growing number of US singer-songwriters who refuse to be limited by rigid musical categorisations, McKeown's songs draw on a wide spectrum of traditional American styles. She learned to play piano, guit…

Lucinda Williams started out recording acoustic covers of classic folk and blues songs, but her own idiosyncratic songwriting soon came to the fore. Her mixture of rock, country, blues, and folk endeared her to a wide audience. Williams's self-titled…

The folk rock duo Eastmountainsouth comprises singers Kat Maslich (b. Roanoke, Virginia, USA) and Peter Adams (b. Birmingham, Alabama, USA), who share songwriting and instrumental duties. Both come from musical families, and travelled throughout the …

In the late 1990s, U.K. songstress Beth Orton broke new ground by combining electronica-derived backing with acoustic folk-rock tendencies that recalled the early-'70s glory days of Sandy Denny and Nick Drake. The fact that she was aided in these eff…

Irish singer/songwriter Damien Rice started out in 1997 in a band called Juniper, which was signed to a major deal but fell apart before it could make a full album. Shortly after that, Rice hit the road as a solo artist. His first album, 2003's O, in…

Grammy-winner Shawn Colvin came up on the East Coast folk scene in the '80s, finally scoring a major label deal toward the end of that decade. Despite consistently strong work centered around her resilient voice and folk-rock songwriting, she didn't …

b. 23 January 1964, Illinois, USA. Initially recording with the folk pop duo Story, singer-songwriter Brooke has earned several comparisons with Rickie Lee Jones for her work. Trained as a ballet dancer, she first played rock music as a 13-year-old b…

After rising to prominence as the leader of Boston's Til Tuesday and scoring a huge hit with "Voices Carry," Aimee Mann left behind her old band for a solo career that typified the struggles of musicians to survive in an increasingly market-driven in…

Welsh singer-songwriter David Gray's story is the classic scenario of the overnight success that took years to happen. He emerged in the early 1990s as an acoustic-based artist heavily influenced by old-school troubadours like Bob Dylan and Van Morri…

Bob Dylan began as a Woody Guthrie acolyte, imitating the dust-bowl balladeer as faithfully as a baby boomer from Hibbing, Minnesota, could. It wasn't long before he found his own voice, spearheading the early-1960s folk revival as well as the singer…

b. 18 May 1973, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The respected US magazine Billboard has dubbed Kreviazuk the "grown up version" of Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch. The Canadian singer-songwriter was a child prodigy who could play the p…

This Athens band's initial mix of Velvet Underground strum, Byrds-like Rickenbacker jangle, and charismatically oblique singing, became the sound of the 1980s as legions of bands followed suit. But even as imitators codified R.E.M.'s approach into th…

b. 26 October 1963, Jamestown, New York, USA. Having originally sung in a church choir, Merchant joined the highly regarded 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 while studying at Jamestown Community College in New York. She would eventually leave that band over a …

Singersongwriter Melissa Ferrick emerged in 1994 as part of a group of new female alternative singersongwriters much in the vein of Liz Phair Ferrick began singing in coffeehouses after dropping out of college eventually winding up in Boston Her majo…