Nick Drake tonight. A name that didn't register at all in the U.S. and barely registered in the UK until after his untimely death, the music of Nick Drake has created a huge renaissance in recent years. His all-too-few albums have been reissued, documentaries have been made about him, tributes have sprung up all over the world. And for a singer-songwriter who couldn't get arrested when he was alive, that is all something of an irony.

Tonight it's a track from his debut album for Island Records in 1969. Five Leaves Left first arrived on the scene to lukewarm reviews and promising, but not overwhelming sales. Saturday Sun ends the album, and in typical Nick Drake style, ends it on a note of melancholy.

An auspicious beginning. But at the time it didn't seem so.

Keeping in the spirit of trying something unfamiliar this week. I ran across a few very nice examples from a relative unknown (as far as north of the border is concerned) singer-songwriter who goes by the name of Manuel Garcia.

Here is a single he put out last year. Alfil has been getting notice in a few more places other than his native Chile.

Gettin' ready to start the weekend.

(Scanners - from London via MySpace and a few thousand miles in between)

Another in my continuing discoveries via MySpace. This is actually a new one (Six Degrees of Separation works wonders). Scanners are a band out of London who, like so many others are going the indie route. This track, Baby Blue is off their MySpace player and their first album Submarine is out and available from iTunes as well as CD. In any event, do yourself a favor and check them out. And while you're at it, click on who they're listening to and make your own discoveries. The rewards are pretty substantial.

(Curly Giraffe - not so much a them as a him)

I don't know where I got it in my head that Curly Giraffe was a band from Kansas who lucked out with a record deal in Japan. I actually was under that impression for a few years, not realizing there were no American sounding names anywhere to be found on the album notes.

No. Come to find out Curly Giraffe is actually one person - Kiyoshi Takakawa who, although he performs with two or three others, is otherwise a one-man band, and has been that way since 2004.

Chalk it up to a faulty brain for not reading the fine print. At any rate, this track, Story of A Nightjar is off his first album to come out in 2006. Curly Giraffe have a new album out as well as a MySpace page. So if you don't want to make my mistake of an assumed band, check him out and see what he's up to.

In the meantime, while you're listening: