I have Keren Ann's "Nolita". It didn't inspire me much. Would you recommend any of her other albums to start off with?
The first 4 Indigo Girls acoustic albums are still mind-blowing for me: their acoustic guitar work - well there's nothing quite like it. Emily Saliers plays subtle and intricate; Amy Ray thrashes and the resulting mess is really rather addictive!
Bruce Cockburn's Salt, Sun & Time is one of my favourites, along with "Nothing but a Burning Light". I'm afraid I'm not a wholesale Bruce fan, and the last few albums I brought from him, including the Charity of the Night, just had him preaching like a nervous thesaurus on the brink of verbal diarrhoea. "Life's short call now" was even worse with drum beats and less of the sparse and beautiful Cockburn acoustic guitar work. During his T-Bone Burnett produced albums, his vocals reached a new expression which I really love. That seems to have gone, although his new live album is real climax of a recommendation with none of these reservations....
Susan Crowe's "Pilgrims' Mirror'" is a gorgeous acoustic affair, as is Erica Wheeler's "Three Wishes". We don't see very many skilled female acoustic singer-songwriters play guitar quite like they do.
One of the most surprising and best acoustic albums I discovered period, was Gary Newby's "Gentle Sounds" where he revisits his alternative band, The Railway Children's back catalogue and re-expresses himself with his Smiths'esque guitar work and handsome voice. It's a real gem of an album, sadly very difficult to locate.
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