So many variables determine what makes an artist or band “essential” — longevity, impact, influence, history. On-air and online, we celebrate the musicians who have shaped our cultural soundtrack for the past fifty years. Let’s love these FUV Essential artists while they’re here, and honor those who have departed too soon.
Valerie June's lyrics reflect a storyteller's rich sensitivity, colored with innate compassion and a keen social awareness, and they reveal not only her own journey, but the early impact of the musicians she loved as a child, like our FUV Essentials artist, Bob Marley. She wrote up her "Five Essential Bob Marley Songs" as FUV celebrates the Jamaican icon's legacy.
Valerie June (photo by Jacob Blickenstaff, PR)
On what would have been Bob Marley's birthday on February 6, FUV dives deep into this soul rebel's songs with their universal and enduring messages of love and resistance to injustice.
Bob Marley (image by Laura Fedele, photo in the public domain)
A bold storyteller, Margo Price looks directly at her own life in her impressive songs. She reflects on an equally candid, hard-living songwriter with her "Five Essential Lucinda Williams Songs."
Margo Price (photo by Danielle Holbert/PR)
As an innovative, adventurous musician, one who deftly brings activism and bold theatricality to her work, it's not surprising that Merrill Garbus, who records as tUnE-yArDs, would find a strong kinship with Radiohead. Garbus and her bandmates have released a fourth album, I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life, in January 2018.
tUnE-yArDs' Merrill Garbus and bandmate Nate Brenner (photo by Eliot Lee Hazel, PR)
Steve Rosenthal, of the belated and much beloved studio the Magic Shop — where David Bowie recorded his two last albums, The Next Day and Blackstar — reflects on the five albums he finds most essential in Bowie's expansive catalogue.
David Bowie (photo by Jimmy King, PR)
Hurray for the Riff Raff's Alynda Segarra writes from the sharp perspective of a native New Yorker, traversing a similarly socially outspoken, urban path as Lou Reed. Segarra has found inspiration in Reed's fearless lyricism, as she eloquently writes in her "Five Essential Lou Reed Songs."
Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff (photo courtesy of Shore Fire Media, PR)
New York punk ambassador Jesse Malin, of D Generation and Heart Attack, has been friends with the Replacements for a long time, touring with them too. He has a special affection for the "bourbon-soaked country side" of the band and wrote affectionately about his friends' songs for FUV Essentials.
Jesse Malin (photo by Illaria Conte, PR)
The prolific Steve Gunn is a faithful fan of Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko and he writes about the quintet with warmth, keen observation and deep respect for FUV Essentials.
Steve Gunn (photo courtesy of Pitch Perfect, PR)
Norah Jones hails from Texas like one of her most beloved influences, Willie Nelson. She has performed with Nelson many times, in the studio on standards like the Christmas classic, "Baby It's Cold Outside," found on his 2009 album American Classic. She chose her "Five Essential Willie Nelson Songs" for FUV.
Norah Jones (photo by Danny Clinch, PR)
The Replacements opened for Keith Richards for his 45th birthday and Tommy Stinson recalls his "Five Essential Rolling Stones Songs" ...
Tommy Stinson (photo by Steven Cohen, PR)
