Joanna Newsom

Californian harpist Joanna Newsom is an artist that sharply divides opinion between those who love her music, and those who cannot stand it. As well as providing harp accompaniment for bands and projects of other artists, she has released two full albums (and one EP) under her own name.

After a couple of self-produced and distributed EPs, Newsom signed to Drag City and released The Milk-Eyed Mender in 2004. It received mostly positive reviews: indeed, some critics seemed to fall in love with it, while a few others didn't really know what to make of it at all. Combining an avant-garde approach to appalachian folk music, with an unconventional vocal style, it was pegged as an album of the psych-folk genre (though this is something Newsom herself rejects).

Her second album, released in 2006, again divided opinion. Titled Ys (pronounced "eess"), it featured intricate orchestral backing arranged by Van Dyke Parks, who is most famous for his arrangements on Brian Wilson's seminal album SMiLE. While some dismissed Ys as fey and irritating, most critics described it as an acquired taste, and it ended up at the top of many publications' best-of-year polls.

In 2007, Newsom toured Ys around the world and released a three-song EP, called Joanna Newsom & The Ys Street Band.