@tgilb, @slaw, i really liked ukelele songs, and i think the "into the wild" soundtrack is hugely underrated (though watching that kid tear up the $15k check makes me want to strangle him). "earthling", was a miss for me--like you say vedder's much better at the straight acoustic stuff than at the lavishly-arranged pop songs. today's picks:
sonny rollins, saxophone colossus--he can play the horn, but the real revelation here is max roach's drums, which are incredible
moby grape, s/t--apparently ongoing copyright disputes make much of these songs unavailable on spotify, but i'm still in awe of this album. bob mosley may have been the great white soul singer.