The Cosmos

An instinctive, shape-shifting guitarist in the vein of uncompromising six-string stylists like John Fahey, Jack Rose, and Jim O'Rourke, Dublin, Ireland's Cian Nugent is as comfortable letting his steel strings do the talking alone as he is with dressing them up with strings, drums, horns, and keys. Nugent's self-released debut EP landed in 2007, followed in 2008 by the live recording Childhood, Christian Lies & Slaughter. His full-length studio debut for VHF, 2011's Doubles, featured two 20-minute-plus tracks, while 2013's like-minded yet sonically more adventurous, No Quarter-issued Born with the Caul represented his first full-band outing, and was released under the moniker Cian Nugent & the Cosmos. © James Christopher Monger /TiVo