Rocky Votolato
Makers
Barsuk

Okay, Elliot Smith is in fact dead, and therefore this kind of thing is inevitable - if it didn't happen naturally then the indie labels would damn well make it happen, that's how market niches work. Course,this is part of a long tradition of downed balladeers, stretching back past Elliot and Bright Eyes and even Uncle Paul "Here Comes a Skyway Regular" Westerberg over the horizon to, at least, um, James Taylor. This isn't bad, really, but it's not much else, either.