Old friend looking for acoustic folk inspired music

Ani DiFranco fits the bill as well.

Richard Thompson is from the Folk movement and is an excellent artist.
Happy Listening!

I sometimes have difficulty recognizing specific genres, but I'll try my best here without reaching too far back in time:
Dave Alvin, "Public Domain"
The Be Good Tanyas, "Blue Horse"
Luca Bloom, "Turf"
Bonnie Prince Billie, "Master and Everything"
The Brothers Comatose, (self-titled)
Crooked Still, "Shaken By a Low Sound"
Steve Earle, "I Feel Alright"
Rice, Rice, Hillman, & Pedersen, "Out of the Woodwork"
Jolie Holland, "Escondida"
Hurray For The Riff Raff, "Small Town Heroes"
Iron & Wine, "Creek Drank the Cradle", "Our Endless Numbered Days"
Mark Selby, "and the horse he rode in on"
Gillian Welch, "Revival"

I re-read the op's post. (I just wish we could hear back from the OP's friend as to (his/her) thoughts on our posts?

(( My thought would be when there's no feedback from the OP's  friend, so all of this becomes an exercise in talking amongst ourselves without the original intent (I) had of hopefully getting some feedback and if we are helping at all)). Having said that, the OP's friend wasn't too interested in a strict interpretation of (folk) in his/her request? It was "acoustic folk inspired".

lp2cd:, I do take your point for a strict interpretation of "folk". I listened a little to Eddi Reader that you posted above, it may be "folk inspired" but I believe every one of my recommendations are "folk inspired" as well. I focus more on the song/lyrics and their interpretation/presentation when I try to classify a song.artist into a specific genre. Like I said above, I think classifying specific genres are very hard to do these days. That's just my humble opinion. I would never think of Billy Joel as folk.

bdp24:, I thought Mary Gauthier was a great recommendation! If not, how would others classify her, in one word?

I would recommend a recent record show find, The Stone Ponies "S/T". I believe it would fit in the traditional "folk" genre very well but would not fit into the OP's friend's request who also wanted, "new, smart, beautifully written". It just doesn't fit the "new" portion.

When folk music is mentioned Kate Wolf deserves notice. She had a brief 10 year recording span due to illness and eventually death. Had she survived her talent would have emerged into the mainstream during the "folk" revival of the late 80's-early 90's!