Song: I Was Gonna Marry You

Artist: Tristan Prettyman, San Diego, CA

Album: Cedar + Gold, 2012

Notes: Sensational, note-perfect cut from an ace album by a former Roxy model whose recent ups and downs inspired much of her latest album. Diagnosed with vocal cord polyps after the release of her 2008 album 'Hello,' she was briefly engaged (from December 2010 to June 2011) to singer Jason Mraz. This song pretty much covers what she has to say on that subject ('Just so you know, I never thought you'd let me go').


Song: R.E.V.O.

Artist: Walk Off The Earth, Canada

Album: R.E.V.O., 2013

Notes: A rebellious nu-folk rumbler and the title cut from a Canadian indie band, who are currently making waves with the single 'Red Hands.' Their wildly popular and faithful cover of Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used To Know' is also on the CD. The five-piece from Ontario fronted by Ryan Marshall and Sarah Blackwood has been together for seven years, releasing their first album 'Smooth Like Stone On A Beach' in 2007. R.E.V.O. stands for Realize Every Victory Outright. Find out more at www.walkofftheearth.com.


Song: Shadowfeet

Artist: Brooke Fraser, New Zealand

Album: Albertine, 2006

Notes: Superb, A+ gutsy pop/rock roller lost gem from 30-year-old music veteran, daughter of legendary All Black New Zealand rugby player Bernie Fraser. Three albums to date, all multi-platinum sellers in her native country. She now devotes much of her time to being a workshop leader at Hillsong Church, recording for the Hillsong record label under her married name, Brooke Ligertwood. Also known for her philanthropic activities, working for World Vision. This song is named after a Rwandan girl who was orphaned after that country's genocide and who she met on a visit to the country in 2005.


Song: Sunshine On My Shoulders

Artist: Train, San Francisco, CA

Album: The Music Is You - A Tribute To John Denver, 2013

Notes: From an excellent new tribute album to John Denver released by Dave Matthews' ATO Records label. Pat Monahan lets the original song shine and breathe without getting too fussy. Other artists covering his melodic gems on the collection include My Morning Jacket, Brandi Carlile, Emmylou, Amos Lee, Edward Sharpe et al. Radio at large hasn't touched Denver's catalog for years, regarding his superb canon of work as way too unhip. It's good to see these contemporary acts give him the credibility his music has always deserved.


Song: Blue And Green

Artist: Wood Brothers, Boulder, CO

Album: Smoke Ring Halo, 2011

Notes: Chris Wood has such a bold evocative deep woods country vocal style on a track recorded with his sibling Oliver. It's tucked away on their third long-player which is stacked with lonesome high harmonies and released on Zac Brown's Southern Ground label. Chris is also one third of the critically revered Medeski, Martin and Wood jazz trio, so he's not afraid of mixing up the genres. They hit the road at the end of May with selected dates throughout the summer. Check them out at www.thewoodbros.com.


Song: Gimme Sympathy

Artist: Metric, Canada

Album: Fantasies, 2009

Notes: Lots of neat Beatles and Rolling Stones references and song titles throughout the song from a group which just keeps knocking out sterling hook-driven indie rock corkers. It's from their fourth album which was hailed Best Alternative Album of the Year at the Juno Awards in 2010. The quartet hails from Toronoto, ably fronted by guitarist James Shaw and their cool lead female vocalist, Emily Haines. They've just played Coachella and have a couple of House of Blues gigs before the end of the month. More at www.ilovemetric.com.


Song: I'll Take Care Of You

Artist: J.D. Souther, Detroit, MI

Album: 20 Songs, 1999

Notes: Simple, quiet, sparse - a previously rare cut by veteran renaissance man, which was originally released in 1984 on a vinyl-only album called 'Home By Dawn.' A longtime associate of the Eagles - he co-wrote and sung backing vocals on many of their earlier repertoire including 'Best Of My Love' and 'New Kid In Town,' as well as penning songs for Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt - he's also a fine acor, appearing in the TV series 'thirtysomething' some 20 years ago and most recently in 'Nashville' - the place he now calls home.


Song: Train

Artist: Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise, Detroit, MI

Album: New Ground, 2002

Notes: Founded in 1994 when former members of the band Second Self encountered the blind street performer - an immensely underrated blues roots singer originally from Alabama - busking on the streets of Detroit. The act's five studio albums, the last of which 'Out Of The Wilderness,' came out in 2008, are all highly recommended.


Song: Amelia

Artist: Erin Ivey, Austin, TX

Album: Dreamy Weather (EP), 2012

Notes: Originally recorded on her 2011 'Broken Gold' CD, this live version comes from a recent recording from the Cactus Cafe, crowd-funded as with so many acts these days by the excellent Kickstarter web site. The Cactus Cafe is one of the most influential and intimate clubs in the vibrant Austin Texas music scene. A professional musician since 2007 - she's opened for the likes of Loudon Wainwright and Shawn Colvin - and now regarded as Austin's Urban Folk darling, she quietly blew the roof off the place at this year's SXSW music festival.


Song: Better

Artist: Tom Baxter, England

Album: Skybound, 2008

Notes: A swirling love letter from an undiscovered English tunesmith who's released a couple of albums. The song was on his sophomore effort ands also featured on the soundtrack to a comedy film directed by David Schwimmer called 'Run Fatboy Run', which sank like a stone. Boyzone had a hit with their version of the song in 2009. 'Miracle', another track from the album, was used by the BBC for the final montage of its Olympic and Paralympics coverage. After a five-year recording absence, he's back with a brand new album 'The Uncarved Block - Part One,' which can be downloaded from Soundcloud.


Song: Glass, Concrete And Stone

Artist: David Byrne, New York, NY

Album: Grown Backwards, 2004

Notes: Byrne has made more solo albums than he did as a Talking Head. Ever creatively-restless, he recorded a typically inaccessible collaboration with St. Vincent last year and is currently performing his 'Here Lies Love' theatrical event at the Public Theater in New York through May. Don't expect a much desired Talking Heads reunion any time soon - never one to dwell on the past, he is on record stating that there's still some bad blood between him and his former Heads bandmates. Erstwhile colleague Tina Weymouth said in 2005 to the Glasgow Herald newspaper, that she thought that he was 'a man incapable of returning friendship.'


Song: One Drop

Artist: Plumb, Indianapolis, IN

Album: Need You Now, 2013

Notes: A refreshingly atypical ukulele-driven outing from the Indiana born singer-songwriter and one of the perkier highlights from her most recent outing - her first long-player in six years, renamed in honor of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Now a busy mom of three living in Nashville, the 38-year old Tiffany Arbuckle Lee crosses easily back and forth from Alternative Rock to Contemporary Christian genres.


Song: Enough Time

Artist: Ghosts, England

Album: The End, 2012

Notes: First-rate mid-tempo synth/pop/rock shuffler from fresh five-piece British combo. The indietronica band was formed in 2011 by former Ou Est Le Swimming Pool member Alex Starling and drummer Ian Palmer, who met at London's Euston Station in December 2010, had coffee and discussed what they 'liked and didn't like about music and used that as a starting point'.


Song: Ghosts

Artist: Presets, Australia

Album: Pacifica, 2012

Notes: A bewitching, anthemic sea-shanty cracker framed in a modern neon urban context. The electronic duo of keyboardist/singer Julian Hamilton and keyboardist drummer Kim Moyes first met at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 1995, both studying classical music but both with a shared interest in 1980s pop - its influence certainly noticeable in their work. They're also regularly commissioned to remix songs by other artists and have twiddled knobs for the likes of the Kings of Leon and Lenny Kravitz.


Song: My Lover's Prsyer

Artist: Bee Gees, England

Album: Still Waters, 1997

Notes: The deeply unfashionable Bee Gees have had their songs recorded by you name it - Astrud Gilberto, Dusty Springfield, Matthew Sweet, Al Green, Sarah Vaughan, Ray LaMontagne, Barbra Stresiand ... literally hundreds of artists across all genres and eras all unable to resist the extraordinary melodic songcraft of the brothers Gibb, who've sold more than 200 million records of their own worldwide. Only Lennon and McCartney have been more covered, and only McCartney has written more hits than Barry Gibb. Now the only surviving Gibb, Barry recently returned to Australia to play a series of live concerts to great success.


Song: Gold

Artist: Wake Owl, Canada

Album: Wild Country (EP), 2013

Notes: Some nu-school Americana from a Vancouver-based act firmly revolving around Californian-born singer-songwriter Colyn Cameron who has begun making music after several years training in organic agriculture and working on farms around the globe including rural stops in Germany, Britain and Chile. Snapped up last year by the wonderful Vagrant Records which consistently signs literate, melodic tunesmiths. One of six sterling cuts on their promising freshman EP.


Song: Oliver's Army

Artist: Elvis Costello, England

Album: Armed Forces, 1979

Notes: The rollicking modern-rock belter composed on a plane trip from Northern Ireland to London in the late '70s inspired by a story about the plight of working-class mercenaries paid to join armies around the world. Long regarded as one of the most intricate and downright clever wordsmiths in rock history, he's also a noted musicologist, has a personal record collection almost as large and diverse at the L&F vault and extremely knowledgable about music from all genres and eras. His song 'Tramp The Dirt Down' has been back in the news with the death of Margaret Thatcher. He wasn't a fan.


Song: Nonfiction Love Song

Artist: Jillian Edwards, Dallas, TX

Album: Galaxies And Such (EP), 2009

Notes: Beautifully crafted harmonies, dreamy lyrics clearly too good for the general cognoscenti, from a Texan singer-songwriter who relocated to Nashville after she graduated from Baylor in May of 2011. Check her out at facebook.com/jillianedwardsmusic where she says 'I want to make music forever and ever, even if it's in coffee shops until I'm a cute, litte old lady.' Right on.


Song: Rose Of Cimarron

Artist: Poco, Los Angeles, CA

Album: Rose Of Cimarron, 1976

Notes: Harmonic west coast country rock at its best, the Rusty Young-penned title cut to what was already the band's 11th album. Despite its radio ready melodic chops and the popularity of country rock at the time, this lost classic only peaked at Number 94 on the Billboard Hot 100. Emmylou Harris saw the gold in the number and recorded her own version for her 'Cimarron' LP in 1981. Now regarded as one of the band's signature songs - and they're still going strong after 45 years.


Song: Pettigoe

Artist: Cat Malojian, Northern Ireland

Album: Cat Malojian, 2008

Notes: Extremely obscure old country banjo-led stylings of the now defunct pairing of Steve Scullion and siblings Jonny and Rachel Toman described as a 'folk/twee band' from Lurgan in Northern Ireland. The seriously underrated Scullion went solo over a year ago, releasing the EP 'The Broken Deer.' Check out www.malojian.com for more on him. One of Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody's favorite bands.


Song: When Will I See Your Face Again

Artist: Jamie Scott & The Town, England

Album: Park Bench Theories, 2007

Notes: Born Jamie Scott Baylin 29 years ago, he fronted The Town for a couple of years before combining with Tommy D in the electronica-tinged British combo Graffiti6, finally scoring a mini-hit with 'Free' last year. The pair have worked behind the scenes with the likes of Alicia Keys, Jay Z and KT Tunstall. They got together in 2008 and released their debut album on their own N.W. Free Music label two years later. Capitol then signed the pair and re-packaged the album last year. Scott is now enjoying major success as a songwriter, with a track on the New Kids On The Block comeback album as well as having several songs recorded by One Direction and even Enrique Iglesias.


Song: A Certain Light

Artist: Josh Ritter, Moscow, ID

Album: The Beast In Its Tracks, 2013

Notes: A lovely late '0s almost Jim Croce folk feel to this number from the Americana tunesmith, who wrote and recorded his new album while suffering through his painful divorce from fellow musician, Dawn Landes. It's a very personal collection about which he said: 'These new songs felt like rocks in the shoe, hard little nuggets of whatever they were, be it spite, remorse, or happiness. I hadn't composed this stuff, I'd scrawled it down, just trying to keep ahead of the heartbreak.' Paste magazine once hailed him as one of the top 100 greatest living songwriters. Currently touring the US with his backing group, the Royal City Band.


Song: Sail Away

Artist: Randy Newman, Los Angeles, CA

Album: Sail Away, 1972

Notes: Maybe the greatest social commentator in popular music history - certainly the most acerbic. Who else would dare match the lyrical notion of an American slave trader trying to persuade potential slaves in Africa to get onboard a ship and set sail for a new life a world away, and yet place those lyrics in a such a beautiful piano and orchestral musical setting? No one captures America's political and social conscience with more finesse or economy and all with such cunning simplicity.


Song: Troubled Mind

Artist: Everything But The Girl, England

Album: Amplified Heart, 1994

Notes: Apart from the monster hit 'Missing' in 1995, this much-revered English duo have been largely ignored by American radio over the years, despite cutting 11 terrific albums. They were the husband and wife team of Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn - they're still very much together but haven't released any material together for more than a decade, though Tracey's carefully crafted solo career continues often with contributions from Ben. He's suffered some health setbacks with an auto-immune disease which he documented in a superb autobiography titled 'Patient' which was published in 1996.


Song: Break It Down Baby

Artist: Robinella, Knoxville, TN

Album: Solace For The Lonely, 2006

Notes: The progressive blues-dipped sound that combines so many musical genres it's like a L&F show all on its own - a bit of bluegrass, jazz, blues, folk - just a magical stew. Robinella was a group led by Robinella Bailey. Now solo, her last album, 'Fly Away Bird', came out in 2009, but there's a neat live update available of this song on her well-titled concert set 'Sunday Kind Of Love' - all can be streamed directly at www.robinella.com where you can also check out her forthcoming dates.


Song: It Must Be Love

Artist: Labi Siffre, England

Album: Crying Laughing Loving Lying, 1972

Notes: Madness cut a rather cool cover version of this song some years ago, but as is often the case, the original remains the best. A London-based poet and folk singer-songwriter - another one of his songs, 'I Got The', was used by producer Dr. Dre on Eminem's huge hit 'My Name' Is in 1999. The 67-year old hasn't released any new music since 1998, but check out his website at www.intothelight.info to see what he's up to these days.


Song: Gasoline

Artist: Alpine, Australia

Album: A Is For Alpine, 2013

Notes: As fresh as Swiss mountain air although the band is actually from Australia (they were originally known as Swiss). A quirky but winning electro/rock offering from a group that has been together for about four years. The six-piece combo from the lovely city of Melbourne is fronted by a pair of female singers Phoebe and Lou. They'll be touring the US and Canada in June, promoting their yet to be released new album. More at www.alpineband.com.


Song: Golden Heart

Artist: Mark Knopfler, England

Album: Golden Heart, 1996

Notes: The former lead singer and guitarist with Dire Straits, he's subsequently composed several excellent film scores and released a series of quality solo albums, including last year's 'Privateering' - which you can buy as a CD on Amazon, but as yet unavailable for download on iTunes. Ever modest, the Scottish-born 63-year-old is a sort of anti-star who just quietly goes about his business - erudite, smart, humble and ridiculously talented.


Song: Astronaut

Artist: David Mead, Nashville, TN

Album: Wherever You Are (EP), 2005

Notes: A sorely underrated singer-songwriter, who is yet another non-country performer remaking the soundscape of Nashville, his last album was entirely financed by 253 fans through Kickstarter. As his website so succinctly put it - 'The yield on the investment' Pure pleasure, with humor, mystery, emotional wallop and dudes of all ages lurking behind a hundred unforgettable hooks.' Check out his website - www.davidmead.com and help yourself to a complimentary download of 'Bocce Ball' from his last album 'Dudes.'


Song: The Wake Up

Artist: Little Children, Sweden

Album: In Hau (EP), 2013

Notes: A haunting, stylish Americana-inflected curiosity from, of all places, Sweden. The singular tunesmith Linus Lutti, who used to be one half of Idiot Kid, but has now adopted a new moniker with some Bon Iver, Nick Drake, Will Oldham even John Martyn influences clearly evident. Another cut from his highly recommended EP called 'Hollow' is directly inspired by Mark Hollis, the enigmatic former frontman for Talk Talk.


Song: Cherry Red Wine

Artist: Max Gomez, Taos, NM

Album: Rule The World, 2013

Notes: Too sad for words, a broken-hearted, inebriated troubador contemplating ending it all after the love of his life has left the room - whiskey, music, heaven - and a slice of musical heaven, one of several deceptively mature cuts from the 20-something singer-songwriter guitarist on his freshman album which was released in January. Haunting alternative country-folk, old-school meets new school with a shades of early Kris Kristofferson and a dash of Johnny Cash. The rootsy newcomer and earnest tunesmith who earned his musical spurs playing blues and country covers in local bars around his hometown of Taos is currently on the road: dates at www.maxgomezmusic.com/shows/.


Song: I Never Said I Was An Angel

Artist: Pauline, Zimbabwe

Album: I Never Said I Was An Angel, 2011

Notes: A hook-filled perky pop/dance cut from the Zimbabwe-born Ms. Kamusewu. Long-based in Sweden, where so much catchy pop fare is consistently crafted - it seems like every musician there has a bit of Abba in their musical DNA - she has been making music since 2003, when she was named Best Swedish Newcomer. As a side note, Abba The Museum opens in Stockholm next month as part of the Swedish Music Hall of Fame.


Song: Weather With You

Artist: Crowded House, Australia/New Zealand

Album: Woodface, 1991

Notes: Shades of America and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on an easy breezy lost oldie from the antipodean combo fronted by New Zealander Neil Finn. Founded from the remnants of Split Enz in 1984, the band enjoyed worldwide success until splitting in 1996. In 2007 they got back together culminating in the release of 'Intriguer' in 2010. Since then Finn has performed live with his son Liam, his brother Tim, set up a side project called Pajama Club with his wife Sharon and last year recorded the track 'Song Of The Lonely Mountain,' featured in the end credits of 'The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey.'


Song: At Last

Artist: Leftover Cuties/Etta James, Los Angeles, CA

Album: Departures (EP), 2012/At Last!, 1961

Notes: From a six-track EP of covers, including a makeover of Coldplay's 'Trouble,' by the wonderfully quirky quintet fronted by the ukulele-strumming Shirli McAllen. They'll be on the road this summer and are looking for folks to host concerts in their homes or backyards. If you want to oblige, check out their website for details - www.leftovercuties.com. The incomparable original, written for the 1941 movie 'Orchestra Wives,' still sounds fresh half a century on.