Tom Waits (Covers) With Your Coffee and Cigarettes (or Cigar stubs in my case)
(a "legal" MP3 mix)

Ol' 55 - this is live from Osan, Korea and covered by Jason Rossi, an acoustic guitarist-songwriter-singer-skater who has released several CDs and has put all of it up on his website

Way Down in the Hole - from one of St. Petersburg's most popular bands, Billy's Band. If you're from St. Pete's and haven't heard from them that's because they're from St. Petersburg, RUSSIA. This song is also known as the the opening to the TV show The Wire. (Note: I believe this is a "legal" site - caveat auditor).

Downtown Train - although you might prefer Everything But the Girl's version, this one takes its cues from Mary Chapin Carpenter. Clelia Adams is a a Tamworth based singer with an interesting story to tell

Ruby's Arms - doveman is Thomas Bartlett, "sometime" member of Elysian Fields and salon.com's music critic. Although this is just him on piano, doveman is a band (more like a minor supergroup) that plays "quiet music" about girls. perhaps the most contemporary artist in this bunch(and best designed website) ..., they have a 13 Aug playdate in NYC.

Rain Dogs - given that even Waits' version sounds Russian and they did such a good job with "Down in the Hole", it's only appropriate that Billy's Band (link above) take this on as an encore in our mix. Their site (linked above) has other downloads including a white Russian rap version of Stagger Lee and some other Tom Waits related fun.

Chocolate Jesus - This comes from a Baltimore-based quartet Jericho's Bridge that remind me of Jorma and Co. with full harmonies on the vocals. Some nice laid back picking here. Shoegazers might find their bluegrassy version of Ghost in You (go to their MP3 page) interesting. Their recording is a little amateur though, so you may have to "post-process" it to deal with the slight over-modulation in the lead vocals.

UPDATE: Here's Billy's Band official site and MP3 page - so I'm not sure if the other site is "sanctioned" but given that they are very generous with the MP3 offerings, I'm sure they won't mind a little publicity. Go buy their CDs!