Old friend looking for acoustic folk inspired music

I'm listening to these lately:

Barton Carroll "Avery County, I'm Bound To You"
Rhiannon Giddens "Tomorrow Is My Turn"
Ryley Walker "Primrose Green", "all kinds of you"

...I did just listen to, Dylan, "Time Out Of Mind".

Marc Carroll "Stone Beads & Silver"
John Moreland "In The Throes", "Earthbound Blues"
Eric Bachman of  Archers of Loaf & here Crooked Fingers, "Breaks In The Armor". While not normally classified as "folk", I think this lp is.

Classifying artists into specific genres is really hard these days...

..a couple more..

I think it's safe to qualify Calexico as folk.,  you will not find a much better group musicians than what make up this band.

Tift Merritt, I saw her on the Traveling Alone tour. I believe John Convertino was on drums (Calexico), and the pedal steel player, the name is escaping me right now, however, I found it hard to keep my attention on Tift, because of the "ease" in which these two musicians excelled in their craft!

I re-read the op's post. (I just wish we could hear back from the OP's friend as to (his/her) thoughts on our posts?

(( My thought would be when there's no feedback from the OP's  friend, so all of this becomes an exercise in talking amongst ourselves without the original intent (I) had of hopefully getting some feedback and if we are helping at all)). Having said that, the OP's friend wasn't too interested in a strict interpretation of (folk) in his/her request? It was "acoustic folk inspired".

lp2cd:, I do take your point for a strict interpretation of "folk". I listened a little to Eddi Reader that you posted above, it may be "folk inspired" but I believe every one of my recommendations are "folk inspired" as well. I focus more on the song/lyrics and their interpretation/presentation when I try to classify a song.artist into a specific genre. Like I said above, I think classifying specific genres are very hard to do these days. That's just my humble opinion. I would never think of Billy Joel as folk.

bdp24:, I thought Mary Gauthier was a great recommendation! If not, how would others classify her, in one word?

I would recommend a recent record show find, The Stone Ponies "S/T". I believe it would fit in the traditional "folk" genre very well but would not fit into the OP's friend's request who also wanted, "new, smart, beautifully written". It just doesn't fit the "new" portion.

bdp24:,

You may find this interesting....

An old family friend who has always been interested in my systems throughout the years and has been/is a vinyl lover and an aspiring song-writer/guitarist, recently told me that while he was living in Atlanta years ago, shared a stage with Mary Gauthier on some sort of talent night I suppose. (This is my brush with greatness).

Couldn't have said it better!

At this point, I'm holding on to the OP's post for his/her friend's post.

Still, after all of the effort and some conflict, we don't know how or even if, we've had any positive or negative difference regarding this (main) issue)?

I will "unfollow" this discussion now.

Without ANY input from a secondary OP, ... see what I mean?

Cheers!