John Williams if recorded well.

Joseph Spence

David Lindley

Martin Simpson

Robert Johnson

The Tony Rice Unit -  Mar West

For something a little more modern and less stodgy, try Jesse Cook or Govi or Ottmar Liebert.

To get more specific on Richard Thompson, the album Strict Tempo!, which is acoustic guitar with Dave Mattacks on drums, is very well recorded and seems pretty reasonably priced on Discogs.

Slaw -- Saw John Fahey perform at McCabes in Santa Monica.  I might have mentioned this already but he might be my single biggest influence in any of the instruments I play. His performance that evening, though, was simply terrible. Clumsy, disconnected. He seemed singularly unhappy to have to be performing live.