(FORTUNE Magazine) – Laura Cantrell once had a 9-to-5 job like the rest of us, punching the clock every day as a vice president of equity research at Bank of America. And now? She's a full-blown country chanteuse with a new record out on the hip label Matador. Humming by the Flowered Vine is Cantrell's third album--it's as delicately gorgeous as her first two--and this time she won't have to use up all her vacation days to go on tour. So does Cantrell miss anything about her former life? "I got the chance to walk into my boss's office and say, 'I'm going on tour with Elvis Costello,' " she says, "and see the reaction on her face." -- Jia Lynn Yang