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.
As the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Susan Tedeschi's soulful voice and ferocious guitar chops plus Derek Trucks' fiery guitar playing equals a kind of nirvana. But the pair also have a long history of solo releases and other bands. Musicians with an uncanny, intuitive connection to their muse, the blues, Tedeschi and Trucks are absolutely FUV Essentials.
Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks (illustration by Andy Friedman)
On October 2, 2017, Tom Petty
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers on July 26, 2017 (photo by Dana Distortion for Forest Hills Stadium)
Preservation Hall Jazz Band's Ben Jaffe worked with Ani DiFranco on a 2010 benefit album, but his admiration for this week's FUV Essentials artist extends over 25 years.
Ben Jaffe, center on double bass, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (photo by Danny Clinch, PR)
As an emancipated teenager with a shaved head and platform boots, Ani DiFranco first stomped into the hearts of young people looking to put their angst into words and their lives into focus. More than 25 years later, she's still making music that matters, like her 2017 release 'Binary,' and she's an FUV Essentials artist.
Ani DiFranco (illustration by Andy Friedman)
The Beach Boys are as good as seasonal music gets, this side of Christmas. That some of the most commercially conceived pop music could evolve into the subtlety and abstraction of Pet Sounds, or Sunflower/Surf's Up-era Beach Boys, or Brian Wilson's mid-life valedictory "Love And Mercy" is one of the great true stories of music. This week, FUV celebrates the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson as FUV Essentials.
The Beach Boys (illustration by Andy Friedman)
"The real question," Gregg Allman once told Rolling Stone writer Cameron Crowe, "is not why we're so popular. I try not to think about that too much. The question is what made the Allman Brothers keep on going." The deaths of Allman in May and drummer and founding member Butch Trucks in January, signaled the Allman Brothers Band's final chapter in 2017. But with the release of Allman's posthumous solo album, Southern Blood, in September there's still an afterlife to be reckoned with as FUV salutes the band and the man on this week's FUV Essentials.
The Allman Brothers (illustration by Andy Friedman)
Scottish singer and songwriter KT Tunstall was just four years old when the Pretenders released their eponymous debut album, but t
KT Tunstall (photo courtesy of the artist)
Joan Osborne has a long string of solo albums, a side project with Trigger Hippy, and a brand new album that's entirely focused on
Joan Osborne (photo by Jeff Fasano, PR)
Michael Jackson, who would have turned 59 on August 29, 2017, remains one of the most talented, fascinating, elusive, and tragic figures in contemporary music. Although his troubled private life, legal travails and puzzling public persona often overshadowed his pop genius, his recordings remain a testament to his gift.
Michael Jackson (illustration by Andy Friedman)
To bare oneself with fearless candor — and speak as a survivor, a witness and ultimately as an activist — is not easy. Straddling her piano bench and bravely laying her soul bare, Tori Amos, this week's FUV Essentials artist, kicked open the door to another avenue of confessional songwriting and elevated the voices of those who've faced trauma or anguish in their lives.
Tori Amos (illustration by Andy Friedman)
