What about Caiden or whatever, drunkards god, seems okay.
He's cool if you do the trickster path, he gives you some wacky gifts like free beeer here and there, you also have some buffs for the tavern defence.
Crazy bard needs to be beaten few times, and needs trickster path to hire her, and she is usable only if you are into hobbits.
If you're talking about Nurah then sadly, no. You can't hire her, she just appears two times iirc and do some stuff for you. Missed opportunity for a companion, she's as un-Linzie as you can get. I'd trade her for Nenio any day.
Speaking of Nenio - I finally grasped what's wrong with her for me, I just feel like she's badly written DLC companion. Her quest has almost nothing to do with the main quest, she has no reason to be on the crusade and her final dungeon is completely out of place in the game's scheme of things. If you do or do not her quest, no one has anything to say obout it, it has zero meaning to your party or the crusade. She's someones nerdy insert into the game and not a good one - something way off the lines and tonaly different like Beemdog's companions to Baldur's Gate or Tallis in DA2.