Under the radar?

[sliding-tom]

Artists and/or bands that are flying under the radar - that means they would deserve wider recognition and / but are being ignored by the mainstream, especially the media and major record companies. We could hip each other to some great artists that we haven't heard of before or never gave a further listen. I'm talking mostly contemporary, but also the ones that have been around and went under without making their deserved mark. I'll start with two of my favourites:

Mr. Rick Vito: some of you may know his name for his stint with Fleetwood Mac or his slide solo on Bob Seger's "Like A Rock" but have you ever checked out his solo albums? Blues - Swing- and Jump influenced Rock at its best IMO - killer slide and standard guitar player.
Care for guitar-driven old school rock with great song writing (with a twist of good humour), played and sang with passion? Check out
Mr. Dan Baird - formerly singer/guitarist/songwriter with the Georgia Satellites. He has a new double live CD out.

[B Vance]

Great topic!!! I love these types of things because you can never have too much cool music. to choose from.

Melody Gardot - Similar to Norah Jones, except a bit more on the jazz side. Check out the title track on her album, Worrisome Heart as well as the track Goodnight.

Limbeck - Alt-Country SoCal band. It you like telecasters you'll be in heaven. It's good road-trip music if you ask me.

Will Hoge - Nashville singer. I'd say that he's similar to the Black Crowes. Good, solid Rock N Roll music though. He doesn some cool things with covers live as well.

[tonefinger]

I'm probably the only one here that enjoys this kind of music( I like all music), but I will mention a couple of ( gasp!!) so called "shredders". The first is Mathias "IA" Eklundh of the band Freak Kitchen. He is a phenomenal guitarist who produces and releases all of his own music independently. He has some techniques that I havent heard anybody else do. The second is Bumblefoot, who has become more recognized because of his recent gig with Guns and Roses. You need to check out some of his fretless guitar work. Both have a sense of humor that permeates their music, which is kind of refreshing. Bumblefoot in particular is kind of Zappa-esque. I recommend his 911 cd ( all of the proceeds went to victims of 911) the song Don Pardo Pimpwagon features both Bumblefoot and Eklundh.