It's talented yet under appreciated (or unknown) musician time

There are so many talentless hacks out there getting record deals that its amazing. What's worse is that some of the worlds best go without ever being noticed. Between Brittany Spears and some of the freaks on American Idol its a wonder anyone ever hears some of the brilliance that's out there. Here's to a broader perspective.

While in Barcelona, watching the only english speaking show on at the time I came across this extremely talented artist. I don't remember the name of the show I was watching but I do remmeber the name of the album, "Smile...it confuses people". The name of the song is "I wish I was a punk rocker" and her name is Sandi Thom.

Katie Melua comes all the way from Georgia (the country not the state). She is that regions answer to Norah Jones and she is as talented as she is cute. From her debut album "Call off the search" I present to you "Crawling up a hill".

Saving the best for last here. This one is by Ani (pronounced ah-knee) Difranco. She is absolutely adorable. But she's also a very savvy business woman. Not only has she produced more than a dozen records she owns her own record label "Righteous Babe Records" and as such makes more per record than most other singer/songwriters in the biz. I've gone a bit vanilla with this song because it is easily the one that most folks will recognize due to its late 1990's radio play. The song is "32 Flavors" from the album "Not a pretty girl". Despite the songs release in 1995 it received little air play until around 1998 or so.

A double dose of Ani because I love her. I give you "Hypnotized" from her latest album "Repreive"