Five Essential Albums

[Update: In 2021, Yola released her second album, Stand For Myself, again working with Dan Auerbach

In 2019, everything is going Tank and the Bangas' way. The New Orleans band, winners of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert back in 2017,  releases its major label debut, Green Balloon, on May 3 via Verve Forecast. Frontwoman Tank Ball writes about what she loves about her NOLA's unique music in her "Five Essential New Orleans Songs," ahead of her band's appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on May 4.

Beloved New Orleans trumpeter and singer Kermit Ruffins teaches and preaches the gospel of the city's music — and he picked "Five Essential New Orleans Songs" for FUV Essentials.

Lucy Wainwright Roche released her sixth album, Little Beast, in 2018 and she's also been a frequent opener for Indigo Girls' Amy Ray and Emily Saliers over the last handful of years. Roche says that five-song limit of FUV's "Five Essential Indigo Songs" was "tyranny" — so she bent the rules a little and picked six songs she loves, written by her friends and inspirations, Saliers and Ray.

"I went swimming in the river with the ghosts and debris," sings Patty Griffin

Dolly Parton is being honored this week as MusiCares' 2019 "Person of the Year" and Courtney Marie Andrews, a fan of the country music icon, weighs in with her "Five Essential Dolly Parton Songs."

On what would have been Warren Zevon's 72nd birthday on January 24, FUV asked one of his admirers, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, to weigh in with his "Five Essential Warren Zevon Songs."

"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.

[Update: FUV remembers John Prine on what would have been his 75th birthday on October 10, 2021.  We lost our friend on April

Ask Indigo Girls' Emily Saliers about the songwriters who m