alternative country

Jay Farrar is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis, Missouri. A veteran of two critically-acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. Beyond his established talents as a songwriter, he is a well-regarded guitarist, harmonicist, and a distinctive vocalist. His music is an informed expansion of traditional American roots music.

Charlyn Marie Marshall, also known as Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. on 21 January 1972. After dropping out of high school, she started performing under the name Cat Power, while in Atlanta, backed by musicians Glen Thrasher, Mark Moore, and others. She soon moved to New York City, United States in 1992, then later opening for Liz Phair in 1994, she met Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Tim Foljahn of Two Dollar Guitar, who encouraged her to record, and played on her first two albums, 1995's Dear Sir and 1996's Myra Lee.

1. Palace is one of the many names used at one point or another by Will Oldham. Palace came after he named himself Palace Brothers for the first LP, before Palace Music, and a few years before the world knew him as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. According to Oldham, records released under the "Palace" moniker were usually recorded in the winter time, and feature some of his darkest, most challenging songs. See http://users.bart.nl/%7Eljmeijer/oldham/ for bio, discog, and news.

Patty Griffin, born Patricia Jean Griffin, March 16th, 1964 in Old Town, Maine, is an American folk singer. She brought out her debut album Living With Ghosts--a set of demos featuring only Ms. Griffin and her guitar--to critical acclaim in 1996. Her sophomore album, Flaming Red, demonstrated a more rocking, full-band sound. The ill-fated Silver Bell album was never released by her record label, however, and the label terminated her recording contract shortly after that. Many of the songs from Silver Bell were re-recorded for subsequent albums.

Read more about Patty Griffin on Last.fm.