Five Essential Songs

Britt Daniel, the lead singer and guitarist of Spoon, is a longtime admirer of Paul Simon's songwriting. When FUV asked Daniel if he could find the time to write about Simon for FUV Essentials, he swiftly sent on this wonderful assessment of his favorite Simon songs.

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.

It's fair to say that Scott Devendorf, of The National and LNZNDRF has been living and breathing the music of the Grateful Dead for a lifetime. The bassist, who wrote about his "Five Essential Grateful Dead Songs" for FUV, worked with his bandmates from the National on the epic, five-hour, 59-track Day of the Dead covers compilation which came out in the spring of 2016.

Earlier this year, Courtney Barnett kindly found time to pull together a list of her Five Essential Bob Dylan Songs for FUV. Her selections stretch from 1964 to 1970 and shed light on her own songwriting process too.

Australian singer and songwriter Julia Jacklin, who is already shouldering comparisons to Courtney Barnett and Angel Olsen, is a big fan of the late Leonard Cohen and wrote about her "Five Essential Leonard Cohen Songs" for FUV Essentials.

Steve Gunn, who released the critically acclaimed 'Eyes on the Lines' earlier this year, is a faithful fan of Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko. In Gunn's "Five Essential Songs of The Band," he writes about the quintet with warmth, keen observation and deep respect.

Sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe not only have a fine career of their own — they released their bluesy, rocking second album Reskinned earlier this year (and did an FUV Live session too) — but for the past handful of years, the Atlanta duo has also regularly toured and collaborated with Elvis Costello since meeting him at North Carolina's Merlefest in 2007. Larkin Poe also have an insightful perspective on his songs as frequent observers and participants, so the sisters kindly pulled together their "Five Essential Elvis Costello Songs" for FUV Essentials.

Australian singer and songwriter Julia Jacklin, released her debut album, 'Don't Let The Kids Win in 2016,' and cites Leonard Cohen as one of her influences. She wrote about her "Five Essential Leonard Cohen Songs" for FUV Essentials.

When Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Ruban Nielson was recording the band's critically acclaimed 2015 album 'Multi-Love,' one of his big influences during the making of the record was Steely Dan. When FUV asked Nielson if he might have time between gigs to write about some Steely Dan tracks that meant a lot to him, he sent along this discerning list that included some deeper album tracks.

When FUV decided to celebrate Van Morrison as one of our FUV Essentials, we reached out to Hozier, wondering if he might write about Morrison, an artist he deeply admires. Charmingly, the first of Hozier's "Five Essential Van Morrison Songs" is a song he once poignantly covered.