The Space Lady

Armed with her trusty battery-powered keyboard and wearing her winged helmet, the Space Lady's playfully ethereal cover songs and originals made her one of Boston and San Francisco's most distinctive street performers during the '80s and '90s -- and later, a well-regarded outsider artist. The money Susan Dietrich Schneider earned busking was her family's sole source of income while they hid from the U.S. government for two decades, but word of mouth about her unique, affecting music gained her a following that allowed her to tour and record in the 2010s.