Back when I was a kid, major record labels were probably, in some senses, just as motivated by greed as they are now.  However, back then, a lot of them were still either run by, owned by or, at least, heavily influenced by, people who knew music, loved music, understood music and, in short, were willing to take a chance on something different.  Today's labels seem to be run largely by people with accounting degrees who seem to take the attitude "if such-and-such sold well last year, more of the same will sell better this year as long as we advertise it hard enough."  As such, I've started buying almost all my music direct from the bands who are out there making CD's on their own, touring on their own to promote it and selling the music at their shows and on their web-sites.  I've developed personal friendships with some people who are doing this and am blown away at how hard they work to share their music with a (sometimes) appreciative public.  Here are some of the acts with which I've been most impressed.

Any of the logos and photos on these pages are taken from the artist's web-sites and are their sole property.  I hope they don't mind my using them to help plug their music!

Full Bands
Groovelily	Grey Eye Glances
Andy & Denise	Full Frontal Folk
Women with Guitars
Kyler England	Susan Werner
Terri Hendrix	Sam Shaber
Guys with Guitars
Willy Porter	Eric Schwartz
Have a Good Laugh
Deirdre Flint	Carla Ulbrich
Modern Man	DaVinci's Notebook