For singer-songwriters in the postpunk era, genre blending was something of a norm. Roots musicians broke into the mainstream as gospel and bluegrass achieved renewed prominence. “Freak folk” artists mixed world and hip-hop influences with acoustic folk sensibilities to create a engaging musical pastiche. Whether its composers worked with a guitar, a piano, or a tablet computer, the singer-songwriter tradition remained alive and well in the 21st century.
Gospel and soul legend Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) was an integral part of the Staple Singers, as well as a successful solo artist. At age 11, Staples joined the Staple Singers, a family gospel-singing group led by her father, Roebuck (“Pops”) Staples. As a high school graduate in 1957, she had aspirations of becoming a nurse, but her father persuaded her to stay with the group, which recorded several gospel hits by the early 1960s.
The Staple Singers’ transition to soul and rhythm and blues began in the late 1960s, when they signed with Stax Records—the same label on which Staples recorded her solo debut, Mavis Staples, in 1969. Her second solo effort, Only for the Lonely (1970), included the hit “I Have Learned to Do Without You,” but it was the Staple Singers’ string of Top 40 hits in the 1970s that made Staples and her family true pop stars. Her solo albums of the late 1970s and ’80s did not fare well as she experimented unsuccessfully with disco and electro-pop. Time Waits for No One (1989) and The Voice (1993), despite critics’ praise, also failed to prosper, and Staples’s struggle to find a suitable outlet for her music continued. In 1996 she recorded Spirituals and Gospel: Dedicated to Mahalia Jackson in honour of Jackson, a close friend and role model. Staples curtailed her musical activity as her father’s health declined in the late 1990s. Her first recordings after his death in December 2000 were collaborations with other artists, including Bob Dylan and Los Lobos. Her duet with Dylan, “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking” (2003), was nominated for a Grammy Award.
In 2004 Staples returned to the studio to record Have a Little Faith as a tribute to her father, whose influence—musical, parental, and spiritual—was everywhere evident on the album. Included on it was Staples’s rendition of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” a favourite of her father’s, as well as “Pops Recipe,” which incorporated in its lyrics biographical details from the elder Staples’s life and cherished examples of his fatherly advice. Have a Little Faith was a surprise hit, and it won the W.C. Handy Awards for best blues album and best soul blues album. Staples also received the award for best female soul blues artist in 2005. These awards were her first as a solo performer. In 2005 the smoky-voiced Staples was also nominated for a Grammy Award for best gospel performance for her duet with Dr. John, “Lay My Burden Down” (2004), and she accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy on behalf of the Staple Singers.
Her return to form was further confirmed by We’ll Never Turn Back (2007). Featuring guest performances by Ry Cooder and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, this collection of reinvented gospel classics played brilliantly to the strengths of Staples’s voice and Cooder’s guitar. Although her live performances were legendary, she had never released a concert album prior to Hope at the Hideout (2008), recorded at a small venue in her hometown of Chicago. Staples’s set list, grounded in civil rights anthems and freedom songs, could function as a sort of short course in African American history over the previous half century, and the concert album’s title, which echoed one of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign slogans, and its release date (November 4, 2008, the day of the presidential election) indicate that Staples considered herself a witness to history. In 2010 she released You Are Not Alone, a collection of gospel standards and new songs that was produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. It was a critical success, and the following year Staples’s long Grammy drought finally came to an end when You Are Not Alone was awarded the Grammy Award for best Americana album.
T Bone Burnett (born Joseph Henry Burnett, January 14, 1948, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.) spent his childhood in Fort Worth, Texas, and it was there that he acquired the nickname “T Bone.” He became involved in the local music scene, initially as a guitarist with local blues bands and later as the founder of his own recording studio. He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s and recorded his debut solo album, The B-52 Band & the Fabulous Skylarks (1972), a straightforward collection of bluesy rock tunes. In 1975 he received his major break into the industry, touring as a guitarist on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour. His second solo album, Truth Decay (1980), shows Burnett’s maturation as an artist, but he found greater success in the production booth than he did as a performer.
In 1984 Burnett produced the critically acclaimed major-label debut from Los Lobos, How Will the Wolf Survive?, and soon after he worked with Elvis Costello, whose King of America (1986) and Spike (1989) feature Burnett as both producer and performer. While these and other projects helped to establish Burnett professionally, his work on The Turning (1987), an album by Christian pop artist Leslie Phillips, proved significant personally. Burnett and Phillips—who recorded as Sam on later albums—became involved romantically, and the two were married in 1989 (they divorced in 2004).
Burnett continued to record solo material, with the Grammy Award-nominated The Criminal Under My Own Hat (1992) providing an excellent window into Burnett’s evolving lyrical sensibilities, but he remained outside the mainstream of popular music. That changed dramatically when he selected and composed the music for the Coen brothers’ film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Burnett earned four Grammy Awards and was thrust into the public spotlight. He later won Grammys for the Tony Bennett and k.d. lang duet “A Wonderful World” (2002) and for the soundtrack of the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line (2005). In 2009 Burnett received three Grammys for his work on the Alison Krauss and Robert Plant album Raising Sand and one award for B.B. King’s One Kind Favor.
Although Raising Sand boasted impressive sales and near-universal critical acclaim, Burnett was unimpressed with the sound quality of the final recording. In an era in which many producers were mixing music to be louder and denser for the low-fidelity iPod and ringtone markets, Burnett returned to the basics of audio engineering on subsequent albums, using his XOΔE (rendered in English as “CODE”) technology. CODE offered a listening experience that replicated the original studio master recording as faithfully as possible, with no additional cost to the consumer. CODE audio DVDs were included in the standard CD package, and listeners could thus compare the two formats side-by-side. CODE was further refined for the 2009 debut album from the psychedelic rock supergroup Moonalice.
That year Burnett also worked with Costello on the album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane and produced the Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart, a project for which he also scored the soundtrack. The film’s title track, “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart),” dominated the awards circuit, as Burnett and Ryan Bingham collected an Academy Award, a Golden Globe (2010), and a Grammy (2011). Burnett also won a Grammy in 2011 for his production work on the Crazy Heart soundtrack.
Although he spent most of the 1990s and early 2000s involved in producing, Burnett continued to perform. His later albums include True False Identity (2006) and Tooth of Crime (2008).
Bonnie Raitt (born November 8, 1949, Burbank, California, U.S.) embraced a wide musical range that included blues, folk, rhythm and blues, pop, and country rock. Touring and recording with some of the leading session musicians and songwriters of her day, she became a successful recording artist in the 1970s but did not achieve stardom until 1990, when she won four Grammy Awards—three for her 10th album, Nick of Time (1989).
Raised in Los Angeles by Quaker parents who were active in music and liberal politics (her father was Broadway musical star John Raitt), Raitt attended Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1967 to 1969 but dropped out to join the East Coast blues and folk music scene. From the start of her career, she played alongside classic blues performers such as Sippie Wallace and Arthur (“Big Boy”) Crudup as well as folk rock contemporaries such as Jackson Browne and Little Feat. Her first three albums largely comprised traditional blues material and introduced Raitt’s supple phrasing, feminist stance, and keen abilities as a slide guitarist. In 1973 she began recording more-polished pop material, culminating in her first hit single, a 1977 reworking of Del Shannon’s “Runaway.” Raitt toured extensively and remained politically active, often performing at high-profile charity concerts, such as the 1979 antinuclear benefit sponsored by Musicians United for Safe Energy, an organization she cofounded.
Raitt’s career declined somewhat in the 1980s as she struggled with alcoholism but soared again when Nick of Time (produced by Don Was) reached the top of the charts in 1990 following its Grammy success. Her popularity continued with the release of a retrospective collection later in 1990 and then Luck of the Draw (1991) and Longing in Their Hearts (1994), both of which received Grammy Awards. Raitt’s other recordings include the double-disc live set Road Tested (1995) and the studio albums Fundamental (1998), Souls Alike (2005), and Slipstream (2012). She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953, Lake Charles, Louisiana, U.S.), whose father was the poet Miller Williams, began writing songs after borrowing a guitar at age 12. She later studied guitar and then voice, but she never learned to read music. Early musical influences included Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and especially Bob Dylan. Miller Williams introduced his daughter to some of his friends, among them the notable writers Allen Ginsberg, Flannery O’Connor, and James Dickey; this exposure strongly influenced her lyrics.
In 1979, having built a solid foundation of live performance, Williams recorded Ramblin’ on My Mind, an album of folk, country, and blues standards that was reissued in 1991 as Ramblin’. She recorded only original songs for her next effort, Happy Woman Blues (1980); neither album drew much attention. Williams began working with a series of record labels, none of them for long; major labels proved incompatible with her perfectionism, and several minor labels that she worked with went out of business.
Her big break came in 1988 with the release of Lucinda Williams. Widely hailed as a classic, it revealed her growing confidence as a song-writer. The emotional intensity of the songs was underscored by Williams’s rough-edged singing, which, though lacking in range, resonated with both vulnerability and power. Sweet Old World, a folk-infused collection that included songs of suicide and regret, came out in 1992. That same year, Mary Chapin Carpenter covered Williams’s “Passionate Kisses,” a single from her self-titled album. Carpenter’s version earned Williams a Grammy Award for country song of the year.
Williams’s legendary perfectionism was evident during the recording of her fifth album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Her initial unhappiness with the work led to a number of delays, and it was not released until 1998. The album brought Williams her first real commercial success. Universally acclaimed, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road also won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album. In 2001 she released the understated Essence. It featured the song “Get Right with God,” which earned Williams a Grammy for best female rock vocal. World Without Tears (2003) was her first album to debut in the top 20 of Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart.
With the enthusiastic reception in 2007 of the hit album West, Williams seemed to have finally earned the high level of commercial success that many believed she deserved. It was followed by Little Honey (2008) and Blessed (2011), both of which also found acclaim.
Nick Cave (born September 22, 1957, Wangaratta, Australia) played a prominent role in the postpunk movement as front man for the bands the Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds. He is best known for his haunting ballads about life, love, betrayal, and death.
Cave and school friend Mick Harvey formed the Boys Next Door in the mid-1970s in Melbourne with guitarist Rowland Howard, bassist Tracy Pew, and drummer Phil Calvert. The band released several records before relocating to London in 1980 and changing its name to the Birthday Party. Known for its ferocious and intense live shows, the Birthday Party quickly earned a cult following and appeared on John Peel’s British Broadcasting Corporation radio program, leading to a record contract with 4AD and the release of their signature album, Junkyard (1982).
Following the Birthday Party’s breakup in 1983, Cave and Harvey went on to form Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in Berlin with former Magazine bassist Barry Adamson and Einstürzende Neubauten front man Blixa Bargeld. The Bad Seeds combined the Birthday Party’s dark intensity with a passionate exploration of love and the pain it can bring. The band’s biggest commercial success was “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” a collaboration with the Australian singer Kylie Minogue, from the 1996 album Murder Ballads. Bargeld left the Bad Seeds in 2003, but the release of the double album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004) signaled that the group was alive and as creatively ambitious as ever. In 2006 Cave formed Grinderman, a Bad Seeds side project that tempered the rage of the Birthday Party with caustic, self-deprecating humour. In between the release of Grinderman’s two eponymous albums (2007 and 2010), the Bad Seeds returned to the studio, producing the critically acclaimed Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (2008). In 2009 Harvey split with Cave and the Bad Seeds, ending one of the most enduring partnerships in the postpunk era. Cave announced the end of Grinderman two years later.
Cave published the novels And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989), a Southern Gothic tale, and The Death of Bunny Munro (2009). He also occasionally worked in film. With Bad Seeds member Warren Ellis, he composed scores for such movies as The Proposition (2005), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), and The Road (2009). In addition, he penned the screenplay for The Proposition, which earned him a special prize from the 2006 Venice Film Festival. Cave’s acting credits include the films Ghosts…of the Civil Dead (1988), which he also cowrote, and Johnny Suede (1991).
While attending the Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-1970s, David Byrne (born May 14, 1952, Dumbarton, Dunbartonshire, Scotland) cofounded the art-rock group Talking Heads, acting as its principal singer and guitarist. Identified with the punk and new wave movements, the band released their debut album, Talking Heads ’77, in 1977. It was followed by releases that reflected Byrne’s interest in experimental pop and African rhythms, including Speaking in Tongues (1983), Stop Making Sense (soundtrack for film of the same name; 1984), and solo albums such as Rei Momo (1989).
Also an ethnomusicologist and producer, Byrne wrote the score for choreographer Twyla Tharp’s The Catherine Wheel (1980) and directed the film True Stories (1986). In 1988 he established Luka Bop Records to introduce U.S. audiences to world music. Later solo releases include Uh-Oh (1992), Grown Backwards (2004), and Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (2008), a collaboration with Brian Eno, who had worked earlier with the Talking Heads and with whom Byrne had released the groundbreaking My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981). An avid urban cyclist and world traveler, Byrne chronicled his two-wheeled experiences in Bicycle Diaries (2009).
Alanis Morissette (born June 1, 1974, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) began studying piano at age six and composing at seven; she wrote her first songs at nine. By age 10 she was acting in You Can’t Do That on Television, a series on the children’s television network Nickelodeon. She used her earnings from that show to cut her first single. At age 14 Morissette signed a song-publishing deal that led to two dance-pop albums, Alanis (1991), which sold 100,000 copies and earned her Canada’s Juno Award for most promising female vocalist of the year, and Now Is the Time (1992), which sold more than 50,000 copies.
Escaping from the pressures of her then-fading teen career, Morissette left home after high school to create a more satisfying and authentic style. She eventually settled in Los Angeles, where she met Glen Ballard, a veteran songwriter-producer. Together the two wrote and recorded Jagged Little Pill (1995) in record speed and at negligible cost. The album featured the explosive single “You Oughta Know,” a searing fantasy of revenge against an unfaithful lover. She signed with Madonna’s label, Maverick, and Jagged Little Pill, which Morissette considered to be her real debut, sold more than 14 million copies and remained atop the international billboard charts throughout 1995 and 1996. In 1996 Morissette won Grammy Awards for album of the year, best rock album, best rock song (songwriter), and best female rock performance.
Morissette’s follow-up, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which she coproduced, appeared in 1998. Featuring Eastern-influenced music, the album was noted for its ballads and catchy pop songs. In 1999 her single “Uninvited” for the film City of Angels (1998) won two Grammy Awards, including best rock song. Morissette returned to the recording studio (without producer Ballard) for Under Rug Swept (2002), a confessional album that received mixed reviews. So-Called Chaos (2004) also failed to re-create the critical and commercial success Morissette had enjoyed in the mid-1990s. In 2005, 10 years after Jagged Little Pill’s release, Morissette took it on tour as an acoustic act and released an album version, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic (2005).
In addition to working on her music, Morissette continued to act occasionally. In 1993 she made her film debut with an uncredited role in Anything for Love (1993). She later portrayed God in Kevin Smith’s Dogma (1998). Her television work included appearances on the HBO series Sex and the City (2000), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2002), and Nip/Tuck (2006), as well as on the Showtime series Weeds (beginning in 2009).
Sinéad O’Connor (born December 8, 1966, Dublin, Ireland) is known for her onstage intensity, shaven head, and alternately searing and soothing voice. She was sent to a succession of boarding schools as a child and quit at age 16 to attend the College of Music in Dublin. She sang with pub-rock band Ton Ton Macoute in 1985 before embarking on a solo career.
Her debut album The Lion and the Cobra (1987) won critical praise and received heavy play on college radio. Her sophomore effort, the largely autobiographical I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990), shot to the top of the U.S. pop charts. That album produced O’Connor’s biggest single, a cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” The accompanying video, which featured an arresting extended close-up of O’Connor’s face, was honoured numerous times at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. She joined Public Enemy in a boycott of the 1991 Grammy Awards ceremony and refused to accept the award for best alternative music performance.
While supporting her torch song collection Am I Not Your Girl? (1992), O’Connor appeared on the television show Saturday Night Live, concluding her performance by tearing a picture of Pope John Paul II in half. The gesture triggered a massive backlash against the singer. In spite of positive critical reviews of subsequent releases, including Universal Mother (1994), Sean-Nós Nua (2002), and How About I Be Me (and You Be You)? (2012), O’Connor’s later work would fail to match the popularity of her early 1990s output.
Sarah McLachlan (born January 28, 1968, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) received classical training in guitar, piano, and voice. Rebelling against a conservative upbringing, she focused her musical talents on the popular punk and new-wave music movements of the 1980s. She was discovered by an executive at a Canadian record label when she was 17 and the lead singer of the October Game. After two years at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, McLachlan moved to Vancouver, signed a recording contract, and released her debut album, Touch, in 1988. The critically acclaimed recording was followed by such other albums as Solace (1991), Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993), and The Freedom Sessions (1995), all of which showcased McLachlan’s talents as a singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Her fans were immediately drawn to her vocal range and the intense emotion that came to define her music.
These qualities were evident in Surfacing (1997), an extremely personal album that was written after months of soul searching. The candidness of such songs as “Sweet Surrender” and “Building a Mystery” earned McLachlan Grammy Awards for best female pop vocal performance and best pop instrumental. She also received Juno (Canadian Music) Awards for best album, best female vocalist, single of the year, and songwriter of the year.
In 1997 McLachlan also helped found Lilith Fair, which brought together some of the most talented and popular women artists in the music industry, including Jewel, Tracy Chapman, and Paula Cole. With the success of the festival, McLachlan proved to wary record executives that women artists were as marketable as their male counterparts. Lilith Fair toured until 1999. Although the festival was revived in 2010, poor ticket sales led to the cancellation of numerous dates, and McLachlan confirmed that Lilith Fair would not return the following year. McLachlan’s later albums include Mirrorball (1999), which featured live performances; Afterglow (2003); and Wintersong (2006), a collection of Christmas music.
McLachlan served as a spokes-person for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and she appeared in a television commercial that proved to be one of that organization’s most effective fund-raising efforts. With narration by McLachlan, and musical accompaniment by her single “Angel,” the two-minute spot featured images of dogs and cats in need of a home. The deeply affecting ad generated tens of millions of dollars for the ASPCA.
Björk (born Björk Gudmundsdottir, November 21, 1965, Reykjavík, Iceland) recorded her first solo album, a collection of cover versions of popular songs, as an 11-year-old music student in 1977. Throughout her teens she performed with various short-lived bands, ending up at age 18 with Kukl, a punk group that eventually became the Sugarcubes. With Björk as lead vocalist, the Sugarcubes won acclaim in the United Kingdom with their first album, Life’s Too Good (1986). After recording two more albums over the next five years, Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week! and Stick Around for Joy, the band broke up, and Björk embarked on a solo career.
After moving to London, Björk released Debut, her first international solo album, in 1993. It was a departure from the harder-edged sound of the Sugarcubes and included a wide variety of musical styles ranging from techno-pop to jazz. Debut produced a number of hit singles, including “Big Time Sensuality” and “Venus as a Boy.” Her follow-up, Post (1995), opened with the single “Army of Me,” a characteristically throbbing, synthesized track accompanied by the singer’s now-familiar breathy yodel. Never content to conform, Björk in 1997 released her most experimental works to date: Telegram, an entire album of Post remixes, and Homogenic, a studio effort with collaborator Mark Bell. Bell and Björk also worked together on Selmasongs, the score for Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark (2000), a tragic musical in which she also starred. The film won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, and Björk was named best actress.
In 2001 Björk released the quiet and hypnotic Vespertine. Her first studio album in four years, it refrained from pushing the musical boundaries that had made her a star of the 1990s and instead focused on a more rhythmic, contemplative intimacy. Medúlla (2004) was an all-vocals and vocal samples-based album that featured beatboxers (vocal-percussion artists), Icelandic and British choirs, and traditional Inuit vocalists, while the similarly eclectic Volta (2007) boasted sombre brass arrangements, African rhythms, and guest production from Timbaland. For the ethereal Biophilia (2011), Björk used tablet computers to help her compose songs, which were released, in addition to conventional formats, as a series of interactive iPhone and iPad apps. Björk performed “Oceania,” a single from Medúlla, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She also composed the soundtrack for her romantic partner Matthew Barney’s film Drawing Restraint 9 (2005).
As a response to the financial turmoil that rocked Iceland in 2008, Björk partnered with an Icelandic venture capital firm to establish a fund that would invest in socially and ecologically responsible businesses. She was awarded the Polar Music Prize for lifetime achievement by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2010.
Jeff Buckley (born November 17, 1966, Orange county, California—died May 29, 1997, Memphis, Tennessee) created a legacy that far outstripped his tragically brief career. His multioctave voice was compared to that of his father, the late Tim Buckley, and he attracted a devoted international following. His one full album, Grace (1994), featured what is probably his best-known song, a haunting cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” He had just begun working on his second album when he drowned in the Mississippi River.
Beck (born Beck David Campbell, also called Beck David Hansen, July 8, 1970, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) had art in his genes: his family included a mother (Bibbe Hansen) with ties to Andy Warhol’s Factory, a musician father (David Campbell) who would go on to arrange strings for several alternative rockers, and a grandfather (Al Hansen) who was active in the 1960s art movement Fluxus. After a brief excursion into the “anti-folk” scene of New York City’s East Village, Beck returned to his native Los Angeles, where he played at coffeehouses in the Silverlake district.
“Loser,” recorded as a cheap demo for Bong Load Custom Records, became a radio hit in Los Angeles and eventually, after Beck had signed with major label DGC, a national phenomenon. A rapped lyric performed over a slide-guitar sample, with impressive poetic juxtapositions such as “drive-by body pierce,” “Loser” revealed a major talent, though Beck would find himself pigeonholed at first as a Generation X novelty act. The rest of Mellow Gold, his 1994 debut album, proved his mastery at a twanged-out meld of folk, rap, 1960s rock, and pop corniness of every vintage.
Beck’s unusual contract allowed him to record for other labels: the more traditionally folk One Foot in the Grave came out on K and the noisy Stereopathic Soul Manure on Flipside (both were released in 1994). But he achieved culture hero status with Odelay, his 1996 major label follow-up. Produced by the Dust Brothers, who had helmed the similarly crackpot Beastie Boys album Paul’s Boutique (1989), Odelay stressed hip-hop and sampling even more than Mellow Gold had, including the single “Where It’s At” (with its memorable chorus, “I’ve got two turntables and a microphone”). It established Beck as the leading alternative rocker for an audience that had grown weary of the earnestness of grunge. Adding to his palette, Beck explored the sophistication of Brazilian pop on his next album, 1998’s Mutations (in part named after the psychedelic Brazilian group Os Mutantes). His return to beat-heavy abstract pop, Midnite Vultures (1999), which leaned more heavily than ever in a pseudo-rhythm-and-blues direction (Beck at this point was fond of unveiling James Brown-style and break-dance steps in his live show), was a commercial disappointment. Somewhat like David Byrne before him, Beck had so thoroughly conceptualized his art that the results were emotionally desiccated.
Beck, 2006. Scott Gries/Getty Images
Alternately lush and spare, the melancholic follow-up, Sea Change (2002), containing some of Beck’s most personal lyrics, met with some of the best reviews of his career. The tour in support of the album found the Flaming Lips sharing the bill and the stage (as backing band) with Beck. With his 2005 release, Guero, Beck was back to collaborating with the Dust Brothers and back to genre-hopping, as his musical scavenging led to the incorporation of elements of blues, Latin American music, rap-rock, and 1970s rhythm and blues; Guerolito, a track-by-track set of deluxe remixes of Guero by a host of other producers and performers, was released later in the year. Best known for his work with Radiohead, Sea Change’s producer, Nigel Godrich, brought a spacey psychedelic gloss to The Information (2006), which came replete with stickers that invited listeners to create a do-it-yourself jewel box cover to mirror Beck’s upbeat musical pastiche. Beck teamed with Danger Mouse on Modern Guilt (2008), a darkly introspective collection punctuated with ’60s guitar riffs.
Although Sheryl Crow (born February 11, 1962, Kennett, Missouri, U.S.) paid her dues for 10 years, writing songs and singing backup for various big-name artists, her own breakthrough debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), took off quickly once her pop single, “All I Wanna Do,” became the anthem of a generation who really did just want to have fun, as the song’s lyrics affirmed. Her raspy voice, rock-and-roll rhythm, and country-styled guitar playing reflected the influences of the Rolling Stones, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Bob Dylan.
Born in a small farming town across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up in a home surrounded by music. Her mother, Bernice, and father, Wendell, a lawyer, played piano and trumpet on weekends for jazz bands. Sheryl began playing piano at 5, and by 6 she could play by ear. She composed her first song at age 13. During high school she learned guitar from playing with local rock bands. She attended the University of Missouri, in Columbia, where she majored in music composition, performance, and teaching. Upon graduation in 1984, she moved to St. Louis, where she taught music to children with special needs. In 1986 she decided to pursue her ambition of making it big in the music industry and moved to Los Angeles.
Crow talked her way into auditions for a tour with Michael Jackson. On the basis of a video audition she was selected by Jackson to accompany his Bad World Tour. For two years she traveled with Jackson and his entourage. She continued writing songs, and her compositions were recorded by artists such as Wynonna Judd and Eric Clapton. As a backup singer she worked with a number of bands, including Foreigner, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Sting, and Don Henley. It was Henley who encouraged her to perform her own music. For the next three years, she concentrated on her songwriting, but she became disillusioned and suffered a deep depression. After intensive therapy she eventually went back to work.
She signed with A & M Records, who wanted to put out her first album in 1992. The record, however, lacked a strong identity, and A & M decided to scrap the project.
On Tuesday nights she began to meet with a group of songwriters who would gather for creative sessions in a warehouse. The group, which became the Tuesday Night Music Club, attempted to finish a song each night before they went home. The first time she attended one of these sessions they wrote “Leaving Las Vegas,” one of the original compositions that would later be part of her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club. The album garnered widespread critical praise, but it was the enormous popularity of “All I Wanna Do” that put her on the charts. At the 1994 Grammy Awards she received three awards: best new artist, best record, and best pop vocal performance by a female for “All I Wanna Do.”
Crow toured with John Hiatt and the Eagles, finally achieving national recognition when she performed at festivals such as the H.O.R.D.E. tour and Woodstock ’94. Following up on the success of Tuesday Night Music Club, she sang with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones’ concert special and played at the annual White Nights music festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Released in 1996, Crow’s self-titled follow-up album was a massive hit, producing the singles “Everyday Is a Winding Road” and “If It Makes You Happy.” It earned her two more Grammy Awards, including a trophy for album of the year. Her later releases included C’mon, C’mon (2002), Wildflower (2005), and 100 Miles from Memphis (2010).
Alison Krauss (born July 23, 1971, Champaign, Illinois, U.S.) began studying classical violin at age five but proved to be a bluegrass prodigy. A flamboyant fiddler, she won several contests, led a band when she was 10, won the Illinois State Fiddling Championship two years later, and signed a recording contract at age 14. In 1990 she won a Grammy Award for her third album, I’ve Got That Old Feeling.
The first incarnation of Krauss’s backing band, Union Station, included her bass-playing older brother, Viktor, who later joined Lyle Lovett’s backing band. As Union Station evolved and changed, Krauss’s soprano singing became a primary element in its success. By 1995 the ensemble was a leading bluegrass act with the breakthrough album Now That I’ve Found You and the hit single “When You Say Nothing at All.” Each of Krauss’s successive efforts became best sellers as well, and her performances on the soundtracks for the films O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and Cold Mountain (2003) helped to introduce bluegrass to a new audience.
In 2004 the million-selling Alison Krauss + Union Station Live was awarded the Grammy for best blue-grass album; “Cluck Old Hen,” which showcased Krauss’s fiddle, won best country instrumental; and her duet with pop artist James Taylor, “How’s the World Treating You,” was named best country collaboration with vocals. With those wins, Krauss passed soul legend Aretha Franklin to become the female artist with the most Grammys. She earned an additional three Grammy Awards for Lonely Runs Both Ways (2004) and another for the duet “Gone Gone Gone” with Led Zeppelin front man Robert Plant. That single appeared on the album Raising Sand (2007), a project that brought together Krauss, Plant, and producer T-Bone Burnett. Burnett, who had worked with Krauss on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain soundtracks, crafted a sound that was equal parts Appalachian roots music, power pop, and guitar-driven rock, tied together by the distinctive vocals of Krauss and Plant. The album was a massive crossover success, hitting number two on the Billboard pop and country charts, and it earned five Grammy Awards for the duo, including record of the year and album of the year. Krauss achieved a Grammy milestone in 2012, when Paper Airplane (2011), a work that teamed her with Union Station for the first time since 2004, won best blue-grass album. With 28 total Grammy Awards, Krauss surpassed Quincy Jones to claim the title of living artist with the most Grammys.
Norah Jones (born Geetali Norah Jones Shankar, March 30, 1979, New York, New York, U.S.), the daughter of American concert producer Sue Jones and Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, lived with her mother and grew up in a suburb of Dallas, where her mother’s vast collection of music was an early inspiration for her own eclectic taste. She first achieved national recognition by winning three Down Beat Student Music Awards as a jazz and vocal novice at Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts. After studying jazz at North Texas State University for two years, Jones dropped out and moved to Manhattan in 1999. There she sang and played in the underground music scene, meeting and collaborating with the musicians who would eventually become known as her band. In 2001 she signed a recording contract with Blue Note Records.
Jones debuted in 2002 with Come Away with Me, a mellow, acoustic pop album featuring several recognized jazz musicians. A critical and commercial success, the album eventually sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, and it earned eight Grammy Awards, including album of the year, best new artist, and song of the year (“Don’t Know Why,” written by her guitarist Jesse Harris). Later in 2003, in the midst of extensive touring and television appearances, Jones issued a concert DVD, Live in New Orleans.
Between working on her first and second albums, Jones formed the side project Little Willies, a band of five friends who shared a taste for classic American music such as that of Willie Nelson and Hank Williams. Little Willies—comprising Jones, Jones’s bassist Lee Alexander, Richard Julian, Dan Rieser, and Jim Campilongo—performed mostly cover songs; their eponymous album appeared in 2006.
In 2004 Jones released her second album, Feels Like Home. It debuted at number one on the Billboard charts and sold more than one million copies by the end of the first week. Like its predecessor, Feels Like Home featured Jones’s quiet voice set against intimate, jazz-inspired acoustics. After little promotional touring and few public appearances, Jones released her third album, Not Too Late, in 2007. The album, recorded in her home studio, was the first for which Jones was involved in the writing process of every song. In 2007 Jones also made her acting debut, starring in My Blueberry Nights; the movie premiered at the Cannes film festival. Her later albums included the indie-flavored The Fall (2009) and the breakup-themed Little Broken Hearts (2012), which featured production by Danger Mouse.
Andrew Bird (born July 11, 1973, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) was immersed in music from early childhood. He began taking Suzuki-method violin lessons at age four and later earned a degree (1996) in violin performance from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. He chafed at the rigid expectations of the classical music world, however, and after graduation supported himself by playing his instrument everywhere from weddings to Renaissance fairs. Having developed an interest in vintage jazz, he soon fell in with the popular swing-revival band the Squirrel Nut Zippers, appearing on three of their albums in the late 1990s. In the meantime, he landed a recording contract of his own.
Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, as his new Chicago-based band became known, won critical notice for its impressive command and fusion of early 20th-century musical idioms, drawing on traditions as varied as swing-era jazz, calypso, German cabaret, and Central European folk songs over the course of three full-length albums, Thrills (1998), Oh! The Grandeur (1999), and The Swimming Hour (2001). The band failed to catch on among audiences, though, and Bird consequently decided to strike out on his own.
After testing the waters with a series of solo gigs, Bird recorded Weather Systems (2003) at his family’s rural Illinois farm. The album marked a turning point in his songwriting; the idiosyncratic pre-rock-and-roll touches were now filtered through a sound that owed more to contemporary folk and pop-rock music than his previous pastiche-driven work had. (He also, notably, revealed a knack for whistling.) Bird expanded his fan base by frequently opening for more famous musicians (he called the 30-minute performances “guerrilla attacks”), and widespread praise for his next record, The Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005), brought him further attention. The success continued with the sprawling Armchair Apocrypha (2007), which sold more than 100,000 copies—a considerable number for an independent release. In 2009 Bird released Noble Beast, and its debut at number 12 on the Billboard album chart marked a career high. He returned with Break It Yourself (2012), which found him partially abandoning the oblique wordplay that distinguished his previous work in favour of greater emotional directness.
American singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart (born May 30, 1981, Houston, Texas, U.S.) blended acoustic folk, psychedelia, and stream-of-consciousness lyrics into a burgeoning early 21st-century musical aesthetic often termed “freak folk.” Banhart tends to write and perform his own music, but he occasionally collaborates with like-minded musical acts, such as CocoRosie and Feathers.
Banhart was born in the United States but spent the first part of his life in Caracas, and this Latin American experience is evident in both his occasional use of Spanish lyrics and the echoes of tropicália in some of his compositions, though that Brazilian musical genre is but one of the many eclectic artforms that have influenced Banhart’s music and performance. In addition to employing disparate musical styles, Banhart, who studied for a time at San Francisco Art Institute, also borrows from a variety of literary and visual artforms. His flexible approach to songwriting, coupled with his penchant for the unusual or surreal, has led to several critically acclaimed albums. The first to bring him to wide attention was Oh Me Oh My… (2002), an extension of the distinctly personal “lo-fi” recordings he first made on four-track recorders. As his popularity grew (not to mention his beard and hair; the oft-barefooted Banhart is famously hirsute), Banhart’s albums became increasingly complex and include Niño Rojo and Rejoicing in the Hands (both 2004), Cripple Crow (2005), and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (2007). The musical genre that has developed around him has been variously branded neo-folk, psych-folk, and freak folk, and though those associated with it—including Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Vetvier, Feathers, and the Espers—resist easy categorization, many of them have drawn inspiration from British folk and psychedelic artists from the 1960s and ’70s, including the Incredible String Band, Vashti Bunyan, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, and Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd.
Having taken up guitar playing as a teenager, John Mayer (born October 16, 1977, Bridgeport, Connecticut, U.S.) briefly attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music but never completed his studies. Moving to Atlanta, Georgia, he played frequently in local clubs with a band and as a solo act. In 1999 he independently released his debut EP, Inside Wants Out. After a 2000 performance at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, he signed with the Aware record label, which released the full-length album Room for Squares (2001). Columbia Records repackaged the album with additional material for a much higher-profile national release later in 2001. The song “Your Body Is a Wonderland” became a major hit on adult alternative radio stations and earned Mayer a Grammy Award for best male pop vocal performance. Mayer’s next studio release, Heavier Things (2003), topped the Billboard pop chart and featured the hit “Daughters,” which was honoured with two Grammy Awards, including song of the year.
John Mayer, 2008. © Patty Keigan
Having established himself as a major presence in the world of adult alternative rock, Mayer sought to broaden the scope of his sound. Incorporating his long-standing interest in the blues, he formed the John Mayer Trio, and he also collaborated with rappers Common and Kanye West. Continuum (2006), reflecting this new approach, earned Mayer a Grammy for best pop vocal album (to go with one for best male pop vocal performance for “Waiting on the World to Change”) and climbed to number two on the Billboard pop chart. He continued to be a Grammy favourite in 2009, picking up awards for best male pop vocal performance (for the single “Say” from Continuum) and for best solo rock performance (for “Gravity,” from the 2008 live album Where the Light Is). During the recording of Born and Raised (2012), Mayer was surgically treated for a growth near his vocal cords. Although he was able to complete the album, the recurrence of the growth after the surgery forced him to postpone the resumption of his singing career indefinitely.
