Brooklyn singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens connected the dots between the '00s indie-folk boom and classical avant-garde music, inspiring plenty of artists to follow in his wake. St. Vincent has channeled Stevens' ability to deliver distorted guitar excursions with a whimsical sense of grace, while My Brightest Diamond and DM Smith have both embraced the songwriter's flair for ornate, sweeping folk songs as minimal as they are finely detailed.