Photo by Brad Bunyea.

Jake Xerxes Fussell Shares “Oh Captain” + “Three Ravens” + Uncut + MOJO Profiles, Announces Fall Tour with Daniel Norgren.

Singer, guitarist, and folk music interpreter Jake Xerxes Fussell is pleased to share two singles, “Oh Captain” and the instrumental which follows it on the album, “Three Ravens,” from Out of Sight, Fussell’s forthcoming record due June 7th. These two tracks, premiered by Folk Radio UK, follow the previously released “lovely, rambling rendition” (Stereogum) of “Michael Was Hearty,” and lead single, “The River St. Johns,” premiered by NPR Music’s All Songs Considered.

“It’s a very unusual recording,” Fussell says of “Oh Captain,” a song originally recorded by singer and composer Willis Laurence James in the 1920s for Paramount Studios. “James spent much of his life collecting and interpreting and writing about African American worksongs, yet few have recognized his short, obscure stint as a recording artist. Turns out he was a trained singer who taught in the music department for years at Spelman College, whose library still holds his archive. I became fascinated with him and his work, so this song is my little homage to Dr. James.”

“Three Ravens” in an instrumental track inspired by a copy of Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag that Fussell found while browsing an estate sale in Oxford, Mississippi. Inside, he found an “If found, please return to” note written by banjo player and singer John Hartford, with his Tennessee address. “I’d been listening a lot to the music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, a member of the Seeger family of folk music fame, but also an important and influential avant-garde composer,” says Fussell. “Her music resides in that interesting place where modern abstract forms and traditional abstract forms collide. Her collection 19 American Folk Songs for Piano includes a wonderful minute-long version of ‘Three Ravens.’ I couldn’t get enough of it, so I went back to my Hartford copy of the Sandburg book (from whom Seeger herself got the tune) and learned it.”

Stream “Oh Captain” & “Three Ravens”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRzD2u_Oclc&list=PLGLGDT-9ZI4JlU3fbzoHK_Ap-bpUKLBnd]

Pre-order Out of Sight

$9.00 – $29.00

Or support via:  Bandcamp  (LP/CD/MP3) |  Other Options (physical/digital/international)

For Out of Sight, Fussell’s third and most finely wrought album yet, he is joined for the first time by a full band, featuring Nathan Bowles (drums), Casey Toll (bass), Nathan Golub (pedal steel), Libby Rodenbough (violin, vocals), and James Anthony Wallace (piano, organ). An utterly transporting selection of traditional narrative folk songs addressing the troubles and delights of love, work, and wine (i.e., the things that matter), collected from a myriad of obscure sources and deftly metamorphosed, Out of Sight contains, among other moving curiosities, a fishmonger’s cry that sounds like an astral lament (“The River St. Johns”); a cotton mill tune that humorously explores the unknown terrain of death and memory (“Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues”); and a fishermen’s shanty/gospel song equally concerned with terrestrial boozing and heavenly transcendence (“Drinking of the Wine”).

Jake Xerxes Fussell Tour Dates

Fussell, who is currently about to hit the road in Europe playing guitar for Mississippi gospel group the Como Mamas (May 24–June 21), will also embark on a North American tour this fall supporting Daniel Norgren. A full list of dates are below.

Wed. Sep. 18 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall*
Thu. Sep. 19 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar*
Fri. Sep. 20 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle*
Sun. Sep. 22 – Nashville, TN @ 3rd & Lindsley*
Wed. Sep. 25 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat*
Fri. Sep. 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg*
Sat. Sep. 28 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*
Sun. Sep. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus*
Mon. Sep. 30 – Toronto, ON @ Great Hall*
Wed. Oct. 2 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club*
Thu. Oct. 3 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre*
Fri. Oct. 4 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre*
Sat. Oct. 5 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall*
Tue. Oct. 8 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom*

* = supporting Daniel Norgren

Features in Uncut + MOJO.

Y’all, pls. pick up a copy of Uncut Magazine‘s July issue to read a massive profile on Jake—including his thoughts on YouTube (he’s an “addict”), Durham coffee (Cocoa Cinnamon), and “bringing something magical to the mundane”—written beautifully by Stephen Deusner, with whom we were glad finally to hang/drink in person after years reading his thoughtful writing. There’s also a 9/10 review that uses words like “outstanding,” “sublime,” and “fantastic” to describe his new record. Plus, the covermount CD includes unreleased song “Jubilee,” so if you pick it up, you can now hear the entire first side of the album. ? ☕️ ? ? 

Many thanks to MOJO and John Mulvey for this incredibly thoughtful and perceptive 4 ⭐️ review of Out of Sight. Pick up the magazine and support music journalism, why don’t you?

“Fussell is one of those rare artists who can transform folklore scholarship into living, breathing new music. On his third and best solo album … [he] has a full band to flesh out his vision, providing front porch grooves that carry the same kind of woody resonance as those of The Band. Tragic ballads are given a good-time swagger, ancient sing-alongs lovingly remade, for one of the most life-affirming and transcendent Americana albums in an age.” ? ? ?

But wait, there’s more! MOJO’s John Mulvey gets Jake to tell some great stories and secrets in this Rising feature, like listening to both Beastie Boys and Ewan MacColl as a teenager, learning to play Blind Blake rags, and alternate album title I’ve Got Mullet This Morning, Ladies. Also, Ray the Dog. 

Stream Jake’s Spring Playlist

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgLWt9OZxXA&list=PLGLGDT-9ZI4JnicPgrPWrvMqFRGUPF-w4]

Acknowledgments for Jake

Jake Xerxes Fussell creates music that resides at the seams of Appalachia and the cosmos.

– NPR Music’s All Songs Considered

9/10. An outstanding collection. Fussell’s sublime third album sees the singer and guitar once again exploring the furthest reaches of American folk and blues, excavating that seemingly bottomless archive and giving these lost songs a fresh life. Fussell is a fantastic singer and arranger, and here he’s working with a full band for the first time… They deliver a beautiful suite of diverse songs. There’s so much to admire throughout.

– Peter Watts, Uncut

He has a nearly encyclopedic grasp of various strains of musical traditions in the southeastern United States. His songs are lively and present-tense, full of richly imagined characters, grim tragedies, and everyday triumphs. But it’s the ways that he complicates and deepens those stories that makes the album so immersive and imaginative. To a certain extent, these songs are about remembering: not just Fussell remembering these songs and the people behind them, but the people in these songs recalling hard times.

– Stephen Duesner Uncut (5 pp. feature profile)

4 stars. Fussell is one of those rare artists who can transform folklore scholarship into living, breathing new music. On his third and best solo album … [he] has a full band to flesh out his vision, providing front porch grooves that carry the same kind of woody resonance as those of The Band. Tragic ballads are given a good-time swagger, ancient sing-alongs lovingly remade, for one of the most life-affirming and transcendent Americana albums in an age.

– John Mulvey, MOJO

As long as Jake Fussell is making records and playing shows, there is ample cause for optimism in this world. 

– Bonnie “Prince” Billy

Jake Fussell understands a couple of things about old songs: they weren’t always old, and they changed as they went from hand to hand or sometimes country to country. They shouldn’t be trapped in an imaginary past, but should be refreshed and reinvented. Now, on his third album, he’s subtly shading his music with more instruments. It’s still uncluttered. Still melancholy. Still threaded through with that elegant, deceptively simple guitar—its tone like no other. This is a journey you need to share.

– Colin Escott, author of Hank Williams: The Biography