Oh my goodness. I love my friend Shannon. She's cool. She listens to cool music. It's not for everybody, but if you're willing to put aside your preconceived notions of what kind of music you think you like, I bet you'll find something to like in The Square Peg Alliance. It's a group of 13 artists who write for themselves and for people who appreciate good music, not for some corporate record label. They promote each others' music through the alliance and they're all friends and often contribute to each others' projects. I'm listening to Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson lately (yeah, it's a Christmas album, it's awesome though) and I might love Sandra McCracken's stuff. Especially Portadown Station. So cool. Check them out at www.squarepegalliance.com.

Edit: Most of their stuff fits nicely into my recent road-trip music obsession!