3. Joanna Newsom
Who She Is: Wow, where do I start? For starters, she slightly subverts the stereotypical image of a folk singer/songwriter, forsaking the traditional acoustic guitar, substituting it instead with a harp. Also, she's about the closest you can get to 'progressive folk'. She uses complex polyrhythms, and the majority of her songs are much longer than we're used to. On her second album 'Ys' (which is generally regarded as her best) the shortest song is 7 minutes and 15 seconds long! For the purposes of our Sample Performance, I've endeavored to find a rational length song. It's her playing on Later... With Jools Holland. Usually she has a full band to complement her performance, but this time it's her alone.
Sample Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb5Jp_duKNM
Official Website:http://www.dragcity.com/artists/joanna-newsom