I've been blown away recently by a singer called Regina Spektor. Whatever you do, listen to the first 2 songs listed below:
Samson - just beautiful :-)
She's a classicaly trained Russian pianist living in New York. Her music / lyrics, and the way she plays with sounds / words is really unique, and gets right under your skin once you've had a couple of listens.
Her live stuff is equally as impressive as her recorded. She bashes out songs at a rate of knots - so has already 2 albums, and stacks of other stuff when you listen to her live.
Watch this space, she'll be big! Here's a couple more links:
Music Box (fogive the home vid!)
Too may to post, but you should get the idea.... enjoy & don't blame me when you can't stop listening to her!