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.
Since Courtney Barnett first offered up her "Five Essential Bob Dylan Songs" two years ago, she's released a second solo album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, as well as a collaboration with Kurt Vile, 2017's Lotta Sea Lice. Barnett plays a benefit concert for BRIC! Celebrate Brooklyn this Wednesday, July 25, broadcast live on WFUV 90.7FM and streaming live via the website.]
Courtney Barnett (photo by Pooneh Ghana, PR)
Beck returns to New York with a show at Madison Square Garden on July 19, supporting 2017's Colors, an upbeat kaleidoscope of an album that the #FUVEssentials artist describes as "not retro and not modern."
Beck (Original photo by Neil Swanson. Illustration by Laura Fedele)
Mike Doughty (photo by Ben Staley, PR)
(December 2018 update: Radiohead will be part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2019, inducted on
Caroline Rose (photo by Matt Hogan, PR)
As Radiohead returns in July 2018 for a four-night stand at New York's Madison Square Garden, we're celebrating the music of this beloved #FUVEssentials band.
Radiohead's Thom Yorke, left, and Jonny Greenwood in 2012 (AP Photo)
In May, Halo Maud's Maud Nadal opened for Phoenix during their five-show residency at Paris's La Gaîté Lyrique. She says that the French band is the most generous she's ever met — and she returned that generosity by choosing her "Five Essential Phoenix Songs" for FUV Essentials.
Halo Maud's Maud Nadal (photo by Lola Pertsowsky, PR)
Phoenix is a beloved and much-needed ambassador of French joie de vivre in the States. As the band returns to New York for a five-day residency at Brooklyn Steel, we're celebrating the quartet as one of our FUV Essentials.
Phoenix (courtesy of Glassnote Records)
As Lucinda Williams' groundbreaking album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, marks its 20th anniversary — it was released on June 30, 1998 — Margo Price gets ready for her third straight appearance at Willie Nelson's 2018 Fourth of July Picnic.
Margo Price (photo by Danielle Holbert, PR)
Jim James has released an eclectic third solo album, Uniform Distortion, and announced a solo acoustic autumn tour. And he's an avid student of Neil Young's music.
Jim James (Photo by Tyler Close, PR)
The "U2 Experience + Innocence Tour" is bound for the New York area for four shows, playing Madison Square Garden on June 25, June 26 and July 1 and Newark's Prudential Center on June 29, as the Irish rockers support their latest album, Songs of Experience.
The Lumineers (photo by Scarlet Page, PR)
