Where do I start with... "artist"?

I have a fair number of albums (4500 lps & cds). However, there are certain legendary artists I'm certain are wonderful, want to know about but just haven't gotten in to. I'd like to see a thread where members name an artist they've heard lots about, but haven't heard much of. Hopefully, other members who know and love these artists could tell us which one or two albums to get started with and why they love those albums so much. If possible, since we're talking about "tasters", could we stick to regular cds and skip expensive audiophile cds and lps? I'd like to know where to start with... Richard and Linda Thompson.