Michelle Blades

To get this much entertainment out of an improvised folk act, you’ll need either a lot of booze or an artist who can sing like Regina Spektor, flow like Jay-Z, and charm like Megan Joy of American Idol. For those interested in the former, you can definitely find the booze with our help at Summer of Sound. For the latter, thanks go to Michelle Blades. If it seems this folkie undergrad is just making things up as she goes, it’s because she does, indeed, improvise everything. The 18-year-old ASU student can pull it off, too. In fact, this fount of creativity has probably forgotten more great song ideas than many similar acts have remembered. With her casual, unpretentious demeanor and her offbeat style, Blades seems able to translate anything that crosses her mind — whether it’s the rain on the windows or taking a metaphorical dump — into a catchy ukulele riff. She’s equally adept at capturing the magic and hope of a days-old relationship or the turbulence of a tailspinning breakup. And if a college freshman has this much raw talent waiting to be refined, imagine what we’ll get when she’s had a taste of the real world. This is your chance to say you saw her first. — Brian Bardwell