Isobel Campbell

Being a founding member of Belle and Sebastian affords a musician a kind of free pass into indie-rock royalty. Not that Glasgow native Isobel Campbell -- who plays cello and piano, and sings -- needs the boost; she's a first-class songwriter on her own. While still playing cello and singing backup vocals in Belle and Sebastian, she released two albums with her own band, the Gentle Waves. In 2002 she left Belle and Sebastian altogether and recorded a Billie Holiday cover album with Scottish composer Bill Wells, with whom she would collaborate on her first solo album, Amorino, the following year. Her collaboration with ex-Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan, Ballad of the Broken Seas, was nominated for Britain's prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 2006, while her third solo album, Milkwhite Sheets, came out in November of that year. Known for her diaphanous voice and ethereal compositions, she is sometimes labeled a "twee" or "baroque" pop musician.