LEFT JOIN only first row

If you can assume that artist IDs increment over time, then the MIN(artist_id) will be the earliest.

So try something like this (untested...)

SELECT *
  FROM feeds f
  LEFT JOIN artists a ON a.artist_id = (
    SELECT
      MIN(fa.artist_id) a_id
    FROM feeds_artists fa 
    WHERE fa.feed_id = f.feed_id
  ) a

Version without subselect:

   SELECT f.title,
          f.content,
          MIN(a.artist_name) artist_name
     FROM feeds f
LEFT JOIN feeds_artists fa ON fa.feed_id = f.id
LEFT JOIN artists a ON fa.artist_id = a.artist_id
 GROUP BY f.id

@Matt Dodges answer put me on the right track. Thanks again for all the answers, which helped a lot of guys in the mean time. Got it working like this:

SELECT *
FROM feeds f
LEFT JOIN artists a ON a.artist_id = (
    SELECT artist_id
    FROM feeds_artists fa 
    WHERE fa.feed_id = f.id
    LIMIT 1
)
WHERE f.id = '13815'