How about Darrell Scott?
You've probably heard of him already, but for everyone else, he's a writer of a bunch of country and bluegrass main chart hits. A really strong performer, but not "the right type of look" I guess, for the mainstream.
For anyone who plays guitar, he's solid and has kind of an interesting style. Not a ripper, but rather one man show kind of stuff (not by any means easy playing, though).
I've never seen him us autotune, either, which is nice, because it's pretty much everywhere the last 15 years, from Peter Cetera to the Disturbed sound of silence cover mentioned earlier. Subtle for the good artists, but a little to shiny perfect for me.