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.
Radiohead will be part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2019 and the band's dedicated fan Caroline Rose, who picked her "Five Essential Radiohead Songs" earlier this year, topped FUV's 2018 Listener Poll as the "Artist Discovery of the Year."
Caroline Rose (photo by Matt Hogan, PR)
Jealous of the Birds' Naomi Hamilton's husky alto and voluptuous lyricism have raised inevitable comparisons to Cat Power. As it turns out, Hamilton is a big fan of Chan Marshall and explains why in her "Five Essential Cat Power Songs" for FUV Essentials.
Jealous of the Birds' Naomi Hamilton (photo courtesy of Big Hassle, PR)
The terrain traveled by Tom Waits is riddled with dreamers and the schemers, fractured beauties, snake oil salesmen, two-bit crimi
Tom Waits (AP Photo via Marketwired)
"Discovering the music of Björk when I was a teenager changed the course of my life," writes Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak in her "Five Essential Björk Songs" for FUV Essentials — just in time for the Icelandic musician's 53rd birthday on November 21.
Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack (photo by Shervin Lainez, PR)
[Update: Holiday Cheer for FUV: Live fr
Shannon Shaw (photo by Alysse Gafkjen, PR)
Ask Indigo Girls' Emily Saliers about the songwriters who m
Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls (photo courtesy of Propeller Publicity, PR)
Joni Mitchell turns 75 on November 7, 2018, and there will be events to celebrate this astonishing singer and songwriter whose influence has transcended generations.
![Joni Mitchell (Original photo: Asylum Records [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)](https://wfuv.org/sites/default/files/ESS-JoniMitchell.png "Joni Mitchell (Original photo: Asylum Records [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)")
Joni Mitchell (Original photo: Asylum Records [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)
Paul Weller's choppy fringe might be on the snowier side of silver these days, but the British rocker, who turned 60 on May 25, ha
Paul Weller (photo courtesy of the artist)
[Ed. Note, October 2018: John Prine, along with the Lone Bellow and Shannon Shaw, will be performing at Holiday Cheer for FUV on December 3. Tickets are available now. Prine's latest album is The Tree of Forgiveness, released in the spring of 2018. It's his first collection of original songs since 2005's Fair and Square].
Joe Henry (photo by Glen Hansard, PR)
Marlon Williams (photo by Steve Gullick, PR)
