Yeah, I’ve been a Johhny Hartman fan for a while now, I’m always looking for good music in the bass/baritone vocal range.
Billy Eckstine is another one that you might like. I tried to find something representative on YouTube but the selection isn’t great. But this will give a basic idea.
Thanks to Fallout 3, I’ve been exposed to Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, The Ink Spots and a few others.
Seconded. I and many other 78 collectors consider her to be one of the top singers of the 78 RPM era. Many of her records have been posted to youtube. My favorites include Big City Blues, Lover Come Back to Me, Lovable and Sweet and Am I Blue?. My favorite of hers is I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling, but I couldn’t find it on youtube.
Any fan of Annette Hanshaw should know about the movie Sita Sings the Blues. It’s an 82-minute animation by artist Nina Paley in which all the songs are by Annette Hanshaw. You can watch it on line or download it here.
I hope you’ve discovered this album. I guess it was in 1990 or 1991 I read a feature in Esquire calling “John Coltrane and Johhny Hartman” the “greatest record ever made.” I didn’t know who Hartman was at the time, but picked up the record. It is SO good!
Thing is, there aren’t many other 78 collectors. Certainly not on SDMB, anyway. They tend to live deep but narrow lives, without the varied insights and interests typical of Dopers. I collected myself once - still have the platters and still love 'em something awful - but the life was not for me.
I have quite a few vintage music recommendations, but they’re more along the lines of individual tunes and cuts rather than newly-discovered artists. As such, they’re probably too arcane for surface dwellers.
And you’re right about Annette - she was a sweet and singular voice indeed.
I’ve been listening to Dyke and the Blazers, a 1960s soul band whose most well-known hit is Funky Broadway (although it was Wilson Pickett’s cover that became famous).
The Boswell Sisters, from the early-to-mid '30’s. Before the Andrews Sisters, and much better (more interesting wide-open harmonies, less machine-like). I especially like their version of songs like “Sentimental Gentleman from Georgia”. There was a group here in No. California called “Cats and Jammers” whose music I liked, and then I realized they were imitating the Boswell Sisters harmonies (except they had a guy in the group).
Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Prima is just a whole lot of fun and energy, and Smith is, hands down, one of the best band vocalists ever.
Mildred Bailey had a lot to offer, although there is a lot of unmemorable stuff in her available body of work.
I’m using the present tense here, even though most or all of these people are long gone, because I listen to them every day.
Roddy
The “New Wave of British Heavy Metal”.
I always kind of liked Iron Maiden, but I’d outgrown them by the age of 15 or so. Now I realized just how amazing those riffs and solos were, which is good because *Run to the Hills *seems to be everywhere now.
I defy anyone to listen to The Trooper (or better still, watch the video) and not burst in spontaneous air guitar.
Yesterday I dl/ed a whole host of 70s-early 80s soft rock songs, and since I was a kid back then I didn’t pay close attention to the lyrics and I didn’t find out until yesterday, not having heard it for 20 years, that An American Dream by the Dirt Band is a really sad song – too poor to take a vacation anywhere so you have to just pretend and drink a whole lot.
Billy Joel and Madonna.
Both of whom I recognized the name, but didn’t really think there was anything good about the music, until I looked up some lyrics from overheard music that I’d decided I liked.
The songs in question being ‘The Longest Time’ and ‘La Isla Bonita’ respectively. In particular, I was somehow VERY surprised to discover that ‘My spanish lullaby’ (as I had always thought of it,) was a Madonna signature tune. 
ETA: I’ve so far restrained myself from going on a massive itunes spending spree for both of them.
“On The Corner” by Miles Davis. I don’t care who thinks it’s bad, jazz and funk belong together.
“Singles Going Steady” by the Buzzcocks. Proof that a compilation album can be the best way to approach a band, and that good power pop never dies.
Better to say that they can go well together. What you say implies they’re no good apart.
The Mills Brothers, the earlier the better.
Really? 1931? Gooble gobble, I accept you, one of me.
You bet, when they were using only their own voices to duplicate instruments, and damn if they didn’t sound as if they had a swingin’ jazz combo backing them up.
Yesterday I discovered the '60s synthesizer music of Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley. Interesting stuff- synthesized versions of popular songs, as well as original compositions (some of which have been used as the theme songs of Latin American TV shows, The Joker’s Wild, and Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade).
“No musical instruments or mechanical devices used on this recording other than one guitar” 
The Primitives. A brit-pop band that sparked and faded in '89/'90 so quickly that I never discovered them. They are wonderfully catchy and get played to death on my iPod now.
Really? Where? I love that song.
Not quite music, but in offering some suggestions for another music thread I was inspired to dig out my Ken Nordinestuff. His Colorsalbum in particular, but I also had/have a bunch of random mp3s of his from all over his catalog. I haven’t listened to it in years so it feels fresh again.