Musical acts you love that you figure hardly anyone knows about

Let's talk about Ry Cooder, who is a long time favorite of mine. The first thing of his you heard most likely was on the Stone's "Let it Bleed". He's playing the mandolin on "Love in Vain".

This guy was an Americana artist before the term existed. He resurrected old folk, blues, jazz. He played Woody Guthrie. His sound on slide guitar is amazing and distinctive. He's restless in musical terms, a chameleon. He has played with any number of styles and sounds, from folk, to slide blues, gospel, conjunto and norteno, Hawaiian slack key, world music (he did some very nice stuff with Ali Farka Toure'). He's done a number of movie soundtracks. such as "The Long Riders", "Paris, Texas", and "Crossroads". He plays the guitars at the end of Crossroads (not Ralph Macchio, lol) in the guitar duel with Steve Vai.

"Buena Vista Social Club" was a film he made about going to Cuba with his son to find all these old school Cuban Afro Latin Jazz players that were playing before the rise of Castro.

Anyway, even if you don't really know anything about the guy, you've likely heard him along the way. Most recently he's been touring with Ricky Scaggs, Scaggs' wife Sharon White, and her father, Buck. The Whites are a legendary Texas country family group.

Hard to pick just one example. I'm going back to his very first album. He's covering Blind Alfred Reed from 1929. Flaco Jimenez on the accordian.

 

Not sure if either of these count, but two of my favorites are Frank Zappa and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In my experience, people are familiar with the names but not the actual music.

 

Love it.

 

Foetus

 

Spent a summer in high school in the late '80s living in Chicago with my brother and working. Didn't know anyone outside of family, so I spent most of my spare time listening to his vinyl collection. The Zappa records were the highlight. Came back to school that fall and wore out my Joe' s Garage cassettes.

 

You'll recognize the song but probably never heard of the singer: Barbara Lynn, from Beaumont, Texas. She still plays some live shows. She was in Austin a few weeks ago, but I didn't hear about the show until too late to go.

 

Lucifer's Friend and Point Blank

 

Aztec Two Step
The Brandos
The (original) Flying Burrito Brothers
The Lamont Cranston Band

 

Love Bob Schneider. Was playing one of his CDs in my cart the other day and a friend remarked on how good it is. So one more convert.

I mentioned Luke Bell on the Top 50 Americana CDs. He doesn't really qualify as he's basically brand-new. Hopefully he gets some recognition.

My all-time favorite is Butch Walker. Heard his Marvelous 3 hit "Freak of the Week" right about the time he was going solo. Loved that and his own stuff and have followed him ever since, going to his shows every chance I get. He's still putting out strong stuff, an example of which was just released today. His new CD hits in a week and a half or so:

Saw this band a few years ago in Seattle when I was looking for something free to do. They were playing a free show in a park and instantly hooked me. Have seen them twice since. They tour practically nonstop. Here is a clip from a festival last year:

One of my friends calls Lydia Loveless the next Neko Case. She has a new CD coming out next week. Here's the first single off it:

 

Oklahoma artist edition

Parker Millsap

JD McPherson

John Moreland

Broncho

Wink Burcham

Kalyn Fay
Middlegate Station

 

Saw Vintage Trouble open for The Who on their Quadrophenia tour in 2013, great live band

 

Deerhoof. They're on the back end of their career now, but The Runners Four and Friend Opportunity are two of the best albums of last decade.

Not everyone's cup of tea. Dadaist, occasionally veering into noise rock, though they've got songwriting chops. Very prolific.