americana

Lucinda Williams (born January 26, 1953) is an American rock, folk, and alt-country songwriter and singer. A three-time Grammy Award winner, she was named "America's best songwriter" by TIME magazine in 2002. Williams has garnered considerable critical acclaim but her commercial success has been moderate. She has a reputation as a perfectionist and as a slow worker when it comes to recording; six years passed between the release of her second and third albums. However, she frequently makes guest appearances on other artists' albums and contributes to compilations and soundtracks.

Melbourne-born multi-instrumentalist, producer, performer and songwriter Hugo Race is an eclectic and prolific artist who has lived and worked in the USA, UK, France, Germany and Italy since 1988. He was a founding member and powerful transient element of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds (1983), with whom he started working in the terminal stages of the legendary Birthday Party (he appears on five cds of the Seed's catalogue). In Melbourne he founded the Wreckery (1985) who went on to become on of Australia's seminal cult bands of the 80s, releasing with the White, Rampant, and Citadel labels.

Steve Earle (born January 17, 1955) is a singer-songwriter best known for his country music and rock 'n roll tinged "alt-country." He is also a published writer, a keen political activist (particularly in protesting against the death penalty in the U.S., as in his song "Ellis Unit One" from the movie Dead Man Walking), and has written and directed a play. Steve also had a small role as a recovering addict on the HBO television show "The Wire".