Martin Sexton

Dean of American blue-eyed soul troubadours, Martin Sexton started out a singer-songwriter in the Marc Cohn or David Gray mold, but his voice set him apart from the new folkies and the AOR nostalgists. His range is spectacular, modulating between doo-woppy precise falsetto, smooth tenor moan and a low, low greasy growl that really does merit the Van Morrison comparisons. His songwriting is rarely so expansive, and the tunes from his most recent album Seeds sound like they were dashed off between trachea warm-ups. No so with his classic work from the mid-'90s, especially "Glory Bound," a song that captures all the spiritual and aesthetic freedom to which one inarguably talented guy with a guitar and a golden voice might aspire.