Jewel Kilcher is a modern day folknic who gained a huge cult following playing Southern California coffeehouses before signing to Atlantic in 1995. Her dynamic, sparkling voice can extend from a wood-nymph lightness to that of a sultry, soulful chanteuse. Born in Utah but raised in Alaska, Jewel began playing music with her parents at the early age of six. After graduating from Michigan’s Interlochen Fine Arts Academy, she moved to San Diego where she lived in the back of her van and began to focus on her music as a career. Jewel’s late ’90s hits included “Foolish Games” (from the Batman and Robin soundtrack) and “Who Will Save Your Soul,” co-written with Singer-Songwriter Steve Poltz of the Rugburns.

The Byrds are one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most underrated bands. There is so much more to The Byrds than the Folk Rock of “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is A Season)” — they were the first group to blend the harmonies and backbeat of British Invasion with the warm, lyrical blood of folk music. The sustenance to their sugar was the evocative mash of Roger McGuinn’s trademark, chiming 12-string Rickenbacker, soaring, three-part, gossamer vocal harmonies, and innovative pairing of analog synthesizers with country music’s elastic tonal twang provided by the Telecaster B-bender (a string-stretching device invented by the late, great Clarence White and Gene Parsons to approximate a pedal steel’s fluid cry). The Byrds effortlessly flew like a feathered Lear jet through Dylan-esque musings, inner galactic Psychedelia, and Cosmic American Music soundscapes that helped bring country music to a wider audience.
- Eric Shea

Amos Lee got his big break when Norah Jones invited him to be the opening
act for her 2004 tour. Taking the
stage with just an acoustic guitar, his soothingly smoky voice and a
collection of the sweetest soul-folk grooves this side of Come Away with
Me, Lee proved to be charmingly mellow enough to tame arenas full of
rabid Norah Jones fans. In fact, he may even out-Norah Jones Norah Jones one
day.
Originally from Philadelphia and environs, Lee got his start as a performer
while in college at the University of South Carolina. He picked up a guitar
and, like James Taylor with soul, started writing songs steeped in the warm,
easygoing sounds of ’70s greats like Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers and John
Prine. After graduating with a degree in English, Lee spent some time as an
elementary school teacher before leaving the profession to wait tables,
bartend and refocus his energies on music. He self-released two EPs before
being picked up by Blue Note, which released his eponymous debut full-length
in 2005 and Supply and Demand in 2006.
- Rachel Devitt

Josh Ritter’s Americana utopia would involve broadcasting some old Woody Guthrie from a pre-war radio and connecting the transmission with a satellite uplink that would bounce the signal through outer space off of planets and spacecraft. Imagine kicking it anti-gravity in a Moonraker-like space station, hearing “Dust Bowl Blues” piped in from interstellar sound waves and you might have an idea of what Ritter’s songwriting is like. He blends traditional country folk with pure innovation that seems as effortless to him as breathing air. His voice sounds like an inspired young man who packs the wisdom of a weathered freight hopper from the turn of the century.
- Eric Shea