Musical acts you love that you figure hardly anyone knows about

Mentioned this band earlier:

 

Sarah Jarosz

 

Listened to three songs so far. She's fantastic!

 

Geez, she's great, too. You're going to be costing me a few bucks on iTunes this weekend, @Buck

 

There's some shitty musical taste on here.

 

Both very talented young ladies, to be sure.
Plus, Jarosz plays the mandocello very often, including in the video I linked.
Very cool. I very much want to acquire a mandocello.

 

Jarosz is a very accomplished player. She attended Berklee to study jazz and composition before shifting to bluegrass and other forms.

Ahn was part of the Hotel Cafe scene in LA.

 

I'll throw out another: Paul Kelly. He's a national treasure in Australia but never made a dent in the US. He's just a brilliant songwriter. I first saw him 30 years ago opening for Crowded House.

This is from that era:

This is just a great song. Stick with it -- it gets very funny midway through.

One of his more recent songs:

 

Another Australian treasure is John Farnham. Other than his brief stint as the lead singer in Little River Band, he also hasn't made a dent in the US. Such a great voice, but they couldn't make it work with Little River Band. On paper, it should have been great, and they did some really good stuff while he was with them. But they apparently had different ideas for what the band should have been, and it didn't last very long.

The only two LRB songs I can think of that were hits while Farnham was fronting them were "The Other Guy" and "We Two."

Here's are some of his songs while with Little River Band that really should have been hits.

Love Letters

Please Don't Ask Me

 

Some good Farnham here:

 

Saw this video on VH1 back in 1988.

The CD this was on became the first CD I ever bought as I switched from vinyl to CDs. Have five or six of his CDs and they're all very good.

This is one of the few with singing, and I find it a poignant song.

 

Came across this guy today.