Liz Green

With her odd, quavering, expressive voice and rustic approach, Manchester's Liz Green sounds more like she belongs to the early part of the 20th century than the 21st. Growing up listening to her father's mixtapes, she was exposed to the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Chuck Berry, the Jackson 5, and other pop acts, though she found herself gravitating to distinctive earlier artists like Son House, Bessie Smith, and Edith Piaf. After winning the Glastonbury Festival's emerging talent contest in 2007, she went on to release a string of strong releases, first on local indie Humble Soul and then on Play It Again Sam Records. ~ Steve Leggett