A.A. Bondy

Upon first listen, it may be tough to discern folk singer A.A. Bondy from contemporaries like Ryan Adams or Jeff Tweedy. A.A., also known as Scott Bondy, stays above water in the overcrowded ocean of singer-songwriters by, simply enough, writing good songs and singing them well. It was this formula that got his old band, Verbena, noticed by Dave Grohl, who produced its major-label debut, Into the Pink. On his latest album, When the Devil's Loose, Bondy combines the rhythms of his Louisiana upbringing with a starkness and fragility of modern freak-folkers like Devendra Banhart. Bondy, who records his albums at a barn near his home near the Catskills, crafts tunes inspired by his surroundings and probably isn't waiting around for anyone to tell him who he sounds like.