Matt Nathanson

Too aggressive to be lumped in with today's folk-inflected singer-songwriter scene, Matt Nathanson is a maverick performer/songwriter whose material runs the gamut from arresting solo confessionals to full-band acoustic assaults. Nathanson's expressive voice competes for attention with his omnipresent 12-string guitar, while his most intense work has pioneered a new human emotion informally called "craffing" -- a swirling combination of crying and laughing which often leaves the listener exhausted yet, ultimately, rewarded.