Cass McCombs

If Cass McCombs were Canadian, we would likely celebrate him next to Rufus Wainwright and Ron Sexsmith. But he's a little too subtle to make a splash in the seas of electric spectacle down U.S. way. Even in the UK, the late John Peel described him as "unobtrusively brilliant," which gets you on best-of lists but doesn't always rack up sales. Which is a shame because Wit's End (McCombs' fifth full-length) is another gem of quiet craftsmanship chock full of languid poetics, adorned by harpsichord and oboe. This is "man at his piano" music that lives somewhere between the traditions of '70s Cohen and '90s Eric Matthews, with stories to tell and atmosphere enough to set any scene.