Which do you feel ...

Iris Dement. She's a very special songwriter and singer whom I learned of from Merle Haggard, himself not bad at both ;-). There are a bunch of videos on You Tube with which to check her out

Lee Oskar "Lee Oskar"
Harmonia from WAR
Killer percussion

Viridian beat me to the Pat Boone classic so I'll have to list my alternative choice of Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece.

I'll add Phil Ochs to the list of artists deserving wider recognition. I discovered his music long after his death.

Mitch, speaking of Van Morrison and albums that require further discourse,
his foray into the American country idiom "Pay The Devil" is so
misguided that, not only does he not seem to know the meaning of the
phrases, at times he seems to not grasp the meaning of the words. Two
countries divided by a common language. Iris DeMent, mentioned earlier
could chew through this stuff in her sleep.

BTW did anyone else catch the ageless Pat Boone on "Sunday
Morning" today? His days of crooning "Enter Sandman"
and "Stairway To Heaven" may be behind him but he remains
the enfant terrible of the Bible Belt set.