My brother dips a toe back into rock music


He gave up rock in the early '70's and eventually became an opera fanatic. About a month ago (now age 58)he asked me -out of the blue (pun intended) - about Joni Mitchell and Buffalo Springfield. Yesterday he asked an interesting question:

Recommend 5 albums by people he hasn't heard of.

Bearing in mind that

A)Anyone who isn't either a household name from the sixties or famous at the Michael Jackson/Madonna level qualifies as "not heard of"

B)The Joni/Buffalo Springield starting point and "art song" inclination likely to appeal to an opera guy

and

C)The desire to sprinkle a little bit of the rock reductionist esthetic

Who would you point him to?

I gave him 4 on the spot, but I'll share those later if the interest in this thread warrants.

Marty
martykl
Based partially on Joni & Buf mentions above:

Bright Eyes
Jenny Lewis(& Watson Twins) and her band Rilo Kiley
Counting Crows (at least their first 3 releases)
Rickie Lee Jones (she started out in the 70s, but has amassed a tremendous body of work since then, and is still strong)
Eva Cassidy
Elvis Costello
Ryan Adams
Lucinda Williams
Sarah McLachlan
Ben Folds
Some guy named Springstein or something like that. Cheers,

Spencer
Post removed 
if he likes Buffalo Springfield & Joni:

1. Nick Drake - Fruit Tree
2. Suzanne Vega - S/T, Songs in Red and Gray
3. Laurie Anderson - Strange Angels
4. Bonnie 'Prince' Billie - Master and Everyone
5. Leonard Cohen - Cohen Live (he's Canadian, like Joni and Neil Young of Buffalo Springfield)