Singer and songwriter Barbara Kessler is a performer on the rise. While her light-hearted tune "Mary Tyler Moore" made her a regional favorite in New England, her more serious work has established her on a national level. A past winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival New Folks songwriter award in Texas, Kessler was named female acoustic artist of the year by the National Academy of Songwriters; her solo album Stranger to This Land, recorded during a March 1994 performance at the Kendall Cafe in Cambridge with guest appearances by Martin Sexton, Diane Ziegler, Cliff Eberhardt, Duke Levine and The Story, received a Boston Music award as Best Debut Acoustic Album of 1995. Kessler was introduced to an even wider audience with her performance on a compilation album, Groove Magazine, which was issued by Time Warner. The collection also featured songs by Linda Ronstadt, John Prine, Jeff Buckley and Matthew Sweet. Kessler's second album, Notion, was a studio effort produced by Jerry Marrotta, longtime drummer for Peter Gabriel's group. Except for a re-recording "The Date (Making Mountains Out of rhe Molehills)," which spotlights Kessler's solo playing, songs on the album featured a full band that includes King Crimson sideman Tony Levin on bass; Marc Shulman, who played with Suzanne Vega and currently plays with Patty Larkin, on guitar; Phil Antonaides and Marrotta on drums; and Duncan Watt and Harvey Jones on keyboards; Jennifer Kimball, formerly of The Story, contributed background vocal harmonies.