Jake Xerxes Fussell – 7th Level Music

Review: Jake Xerxes Fussell – Good and Green Again

My taste in folk music, not unlike doom metal, is hit or miss. There has to be a certain combination of elements for me to enjoy an album in either genre. I’m not sure if I could tell you what all those elements are, but I can tell you that one of the most crucial is that the artist or band, while being good at their craft, doesn’t try too hard. They don’t force anything.

Jake Xerxes Fussell is such an artist. His guitar playing and vocals are simple, haunting, and the work of an expert craftsman – and none of it is forced. None of it is for show. It simply is, and his new album Good and Green Again continues his string of top-notch folk music that instantly transports you to different times and places that resonate with lessons needed in modern time.

“Love Farewell” is the sound of the sun rising or setting, depending on your mood when you hear it. It can be a song of moving forward after the loss of love or realizing a love is ending. “Carriebelle” adds solemn horns to a solemn song about the perils of booze and heartbreak. The horns continue their lonely cries on “Breast of Glass,” in which Fussell sings about wishing how he could keep a memory inside him forever – all the while knowing his hold on it would be fragile.

“Frolic,” “What Did the Hen Duck Say to the Drake?”, and “In Florida” are three lovely instrumentals on the album, something I hadn’t heard from Fussell before this record, and they’re all great additions. Fussell is great at writing, playing, and singing songs about the plight of the working class (or finding obscure songs about the subject and reinterpreting them in a new way), and “Rolling Mills Are Burning Down” is one such track. He sings about workers watching their jobs being reduced to ashes, knowing their way of life and means of earning bread are gone.

“The Golden Willow Tree” is a nine-minute-long tale of a scuttled ship, betrayal, and the loss of wealth and glory. The album ends with “Washington,” Fussell’s tribute / satirical salute to the first President of the U.S. and the way we, as Americans, tend to deify the Founding Fathers.

It’s another lovely record from Fussell with strength in its subtlety.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Jake Xerxes Fussell releases two singles from his new album due January 21st.

Singer, guitarist, and folk music interpreter Jake Xerxes Fussell shares two new songs, “Breast of Glass” and “Frolic,” from his forthcoming album, Good and Green Again, out January 21st on Paradise of Bachelors. Produced by James Elkington (Jeff Tweedy, Michael Chapman, Steve Gunn, etc.), Good and Green Again is Fussell’s most conceptually focused and breathtakingly rendered album to date, a transcendent place on a musical map of melancholy, quietude, and foot-stomping joy. Following previously released album opener “Love Farewell,” “Breast of Glass” features beautiful, sparse horn arrangements written by Fussell and Elkington and performed by Anna Jacobson. “Frolic,” one of the three airy instrumentals on Good and Green Again, punctuates the program, offering respite and light in the form of crisp, shuffling play-party tunes.

Listen to “Breast of Glass”

Listen to “Frolic”

Fussell has distinguished himself as one of his generation’s preeminent interpreters of traditional (and not so traditional) “folk” songs, a practice which he approaches with a refreshingly unfussy lack of nostalgia and preciousness. By recontextualizing ancient vernacular songs and sources of the American South, he allows them to breathe and speak for themselves and for himself; he alternately inhabits them and allows them to inhabit him. In all his work, Fussell humanizes his material with his own profound curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways. The robust burr of his voice, which periodically melts and catches at a particularly tender turn of phrase, and the swung rhythmic undertow of exquisite, seemingly effortless guitar-playing pull new valences of meaning from ostensibly antique songs and subjects.

For Good and Green Again, Elkington and Fussell enlisted engineer Jason Richmond and a group of formidable players hailing from Durham, North Carolina (where Fussell lives) and elsewhere, including regular band members Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah, Nathan Bowles) on upright bass, Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) on strings, and Nathan Golub on pedal steel. They were joined by welcome newcomers Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) on drums, Joseph Decosimo on fiddle, Anna Jacobson on brass, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who contributes additional vocals.

Listen to “Love Farewell”

Pre-order Good and Green Again

Jake Xerxes Fussell Tour Dates (new dates in bold):
Fri. Jan. 21 – Chapel Hill, NC @ The Nightlight
Sat. Jan. 22 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel
Sun. Jan. 23 – Washington, DC @ Pie Shop
Tue. Jan. 25 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
Wed. Jan. 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Knitting Factory
Thu. Jan. 27 – Boston, MA @ Club Passim
Fri. Jan 28 – Keene, NH @ Nova Arts
Sat. Jan. 29 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Caffe Lena
Thu. Feb. 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Gold Diggers *
Sat. Feb 19 – Santa Monica, CA @ McCabe’s Guitar Shop *
Tue. Feb 22 – Portland, OR @ The Old Church *
Sun. May 1 – Kilkenny, IE @ Kilkenny Roots
Mon. May 2 – Kilkenny, IE @ Kilkenny Roots
Tue. May 3 – Dublin, IE @ Bello Bar
Wed. May 4 – Belfast, UK @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Fri. May 6 – Manchester, UK @ Gulliver’s
Sat. May 7 – London, UK @ Oslo
Sun. May 8 – Glasgow, UK @ Glad Cafe
Mon. May 9 – York, UK @ Fulford Arms
Wed. May 11 – Ultrecht, NL @ Tivoli (Club Nine)
Fri. May 13 – Nijmegen, NL @ Merleyn
Sat. May 14 – Cologne, DE @ King Georg
Mon. May 16 – Hamburg, DE @ Aalhaus
Tue. May 17 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso

* w/ special guest Tom Brosseau

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Top 30 albums of 2019: #’s 10 – 6

We’ve reached the top 10 folks!

#10 – Jake Xerxes Fussell – Out of Sight

Jake Fussell sings sea shanties, songs about death, and forgotten ballads and does them with such warm and honesty that every album feels like he’s playing it live in your living room.

#9 – Claude Fontaine – self-titled

Half-dub, half-bossa nova, all good. Claude Fontaine‘s lovely voice blends so well with her powerhouse backing band of seasoned session musicians that this album sounds like she’s been putting out records for years.

#8 – L’Epee – Diabolique

L’Epee’s Diabolique is not only one of the best psychedelic rock albums of the year, it’s also one of the best debut albums of the year. The arrangements drift over your like incense smoke and send you back in time to 1967.

#7 – Thee Oh Sees – Face Stabber

This double album from Thee Oh Sees pushed up the double-drumming percussion and added jazz elements to create a wild record that sounds like a long lost Frank Zappa record, but with more allusions to creepy people in shadows possibly manipulating us without our knowledge. Plus, one entire side of this double album is the incredible “Henchlock.”

#6 – Moon Duo – Stars Are the Light

If you can mix psychedelia with jazz, why not mix it with disco? That’s just Moon Duo did on Stars Are the Light – an ultra-cool record that should be the soundtrack for every chill lounge in outer space.

Who makes the top 5? Come back later today to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Jake Xerxes Fussell – Out of Sight

Jake Xerxes Fussell is one of those artists who wouldn’t have been on my radar were it not for this blog. A country guitarist who sings songs about fish mongers? That’s usually not in my wheelhouse. Fussell’s last album, What in the Natural World, was sent to me by his label and it turned out to be one of my favorite albums of that year.

Now they’ve sent me Out of Sight, and it’s already in my top 20 of the year so far. The opener, “The River St. Johns” is that fish monger’s song I mentioned above, which Russell remembers hearing as a kid and he reproduces with great affection. “Micheal Was Hearty” is his reworking of an Irish folk song from the late 1800’s into, get this, a waltz. It works. It works quite well. “Oh Captain” is his cover of an obscure Willis Laurence James song from the 1920’s and has Fussell singing the blues about a deckhand’s toil aboard his ship.

“Three Ravens” is another obscure 1920’s American songbook classic that has Fussell’s guitar work shining throughout it, and the lap steel is a great touch. The soft bass drum on “Jubilee” is like the heartbeat of a child as she sees a carousel for the first time. “Swing and turn, jubilee. Live and learn, jubilee,” Fussell sings. It’s a simple message that carries a lot of weight and insight. “Winnsboro Cottonmill Blues” has Fussell singing about the hard life of a textile mill worker whose boss would “take the nickles off a dead man’s eyes to buy Coca-Colas and Eskimo Pies.”

The shuffle of the murder / love ballad “The Rainbow Willow” is only matched in its artistry by the lap steel guitar and Fussell’s vocals. The instrumental “16-20” is slightly creepy, yet warm – like a friend who emerges out of a fog on a lonely road. The closer is the spiritual classic “Drinking of the Wine,” which Fussell admits he sings like fisherman singing a net-hauling shanty.

I haven’t written anywhere near enough about Fussell guitar playing, which is so masterful that he makes every song sound easy. His vocals also seem effortless, and his backing band on this record is outstanding. Fussell mentions in the liner notes that he wanted this record to “sound like a band playing in a room – nothing too ornate or grandiose in concept.” He nailed it. Out of Sight is intimate and delightful.

Keep your mind open.

[It would be out of sight if you subscribed.]

Jake Xerxes Fussell’s new album, “Out of Sight,” due June 7th. The first single, “The River St. Johns,” however, is available now.

“North Carolina-based folk and blues guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell creates music that resides at the seams of Appalachia and the cosmos.” — NPR Music

“Jake Xerxes Fussell is a national treasure.” — Aquarium Drunkard

“Achingly beautiful. He has an uncanny ability to illuminate the present by propping up a window against the past.” — Uncut

Jake Xerxes Fussell is pleased to announce his third album, Out of Sight, out June 7th on Paradise of Bachelors, alongside the album’s first single, “The River St. Johns.” Of the track, Jake writes: ‘The River St. Johns’ comes straight from one of Stetson Kennedy’s Florida WPA recordings of a gentleman named Harden Stuckey doing his interpretation of a fishmonger’s cry, which he recalls from a childhood memory. What compelling imagery there: “I’ve got fresh fish this morning, ladies / They are gilded with gold, and you may find a diamond in their mouths.” I can’t help but believe him.

Listen “The River St. Johns” — https://youtu.be/RaJCnhbVM64

On his third and most finely wrought album yet, guitarist, singer, and master interpreter Fussell 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 folksongs 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”).

Read Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s essay on Fussell below.

“In our house we’ve listened to more Jake Fussell than any other individual artist over the past year, with the possible exception of Laurie Spiegel. We’ve had the opportunity to witness several intimate performances of Fussell’s (to my mind, he creates a new standard for the value of up-close musical experience) here in Louisville. As long as Jake Fussell is making records and playing shows, there is ample cause for optimism in this world. Fussell’s repertoire, and the manner in which he creates, constructs and presents it, displays such a beautiful and complex relationship to time and currency. He’s able to listen to and understand the presence of an old recording, of crusty dusty written-out pieces of music and memories of musical encounters. And then he overlays his own now-ness on those pre-existing presences so that the lives of older musical forces, in effect, link arms with Fussell’s in-progress trajectory and skip down the brick road, picking up desperate and willing compatriots along the way. Meaning: Jake lives in music as a true time-artist, using the qualities of time itself as irreplaceable elements of content.

“When Jake sings a sad song, he presents it in such a way that makes me want to say “Hey, but everything’s okay because you’re Jake Xerxes Fussell!” Hopefully it’s okay by him that I wouldn’t accept full-fledged nihilism from him even if he were standing naked on the ledge of a tall building with “this World is Shit” written on his shaved chest in, well, shit. His deal with his songs is too strong and blatantly valuable.” — Bonnie “Prince” Billy

Out of Sight Tracklist: 01. The River St. Johns 02. Michael Was Hearty 03. Oh Captain 04. Three Ravens 05. Jubilee 06. Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues 07. The Rainbow Willow 08. 16-20 09. Drinking of the Wine

Pre-order Out of Sight: From PoB (LP/CD): http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/pob-042

Elsewhere (LP/CD/DL/stream): http://smarturl.it/PoB42

Keep your mind open.

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Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 25 – 21

Who made the top 25? Read on!

#25 – Dion Lunadon – self-titled

As the story goes, Dion Lunadon was restless during a break that his band, A Place to Bury Strangers, was taking in-between tour dates. He focused that restless energy into this powerhouse of a record that mixes everything from noise-rock to psychobilly grooves. Thank heavens for eager artists.

#24 – The Moonlandingz – Interplanetary Class Classics

A band that started out as a fictional joke between Sean Lennon and members of Fat White Family ended up putting out one of the wildest records of 2017. It’s a great mix of psychedelia, electro, disco, and otherworldly chaos.

#23 – Jake Xerxes Fussell – What in the Natural World

Good heavens, this album is beautiful. It’s somewhere between blues and outlaw country and is most Jake Fussell and his acoustic guitar singing heartbreaking songs about being broke, lost loves, and the bravery of river men in old times. It will leave you wondering why you hadn’t heard of him before now.

#22 – Ron Gallo – Heavy Meta

Ron Gallo is working damn hard to remind you that rock and roll isn’t dead (We are, however, according to him.), so it would do you good to pay attention to his Stooges-inspired riffs, vocals, and attitude. He’s already planning a release early next year, so get on this now and hear the buzz.

#21 – The Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody

The Flaming Lips continue their journey through other dimensions and exploration of death, life, and love with this weird mix of psychedelia and shimmering power pop. The addition of guest vocals by Miley Cyrus is a nice touch as well.

Next up, the top 20! Come back soon!

Keep your mind open.

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Jake Xerxes Fussell – What in the Natural World

One of the nice things about this blog is that it sometimes takes me to music I probably wouldn’t have discovered without it. One such artist is Jake Xerxes Fussell, whose label sent me a press release about his new album – What in the Natural World. The album cover shows a lone man in rowing a canoe on a glass-smooth river while large circular objects loom around and behind him. They could be hills or cogs in a giant machine, but the result is the same. One man rows away from things bearing down on him, preferring to find his own path and his own was to solace.

“Jump for Joy” starts the album and immediately showcases Fussell’s guitar-picking skills. His voice is both relaxed and sharp at the same time as he sings about making it to the pearly gates (“Step right in, give [St.] Pete some skin, and jump for joy.”) and leaving behind a life of toil.

Fussell asks, “Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?” I haven’t, but Fussell seems to have knowledge of such a rarity. His guitar is amped up a bit, and the drums by Nathan Bowles will get your toes tapping whle Fussell sings about an illicit affair with a married woman.

Fussell gets back to his theme of escape from burdens and desire on “Pinnacle Mountain Silver Mine.” It’s the story of a miner, one of many, who seeks a treasure rumored to be in a mountain but has never been found. Fussell climbs rocky hills and crosses raging rivers to work the mine, “but its secret I will never know.” It’s a lovely ode to those who work hard all their lives for little, if any, reward in this world.

“Furniture Man” is one of the saddest and yet prettiest songs on the record. Fussell’s guitar work is a crisp as an origami fold on it as he sings about a man being broke and having everything he owns repossessed on a Sunday morning, including items that evoke memories of his dead wife. All he can do is ask the furniture man to take his time so he can hold onto the memories just a bit longer.

“Bells of Rhymney” is a bit funky, actually, with a nice bass walk by Casey Toll and a bit of country swing in Fussell’s guitar. His vocals get agile on “Billy Button,” as he sings about a man happy to be “bound for the happy land of Canaan.”

“Canyoneers” is a tribute to men who live, work, eat, sleep, and die in canyons and the many would only fly over in a tourist trap helicopter ride that costs nothing after you sit through a timeshare sales pitch. “What’s in a man to make him thirst for the kind life he knows is cursed? He’ll die a lonely a river rat foolhardy canyoneer.”

“St. Brendan’s Isle” brings in some Gaelic flavor as Fussell sings about brave sailors facing rough seas and literal demons trying to drag them to Davey Jones’ locker. Holy saints and angels preserve them until they not only meet St. Brendan, but even travel the world on the back of a giant fish in celebration. Could this celebration be one of realization? Are the sailors long dead and actually experiencing the joy of the afterlife? Judging by the prominent themes on What in the Natural World, the answer is probably “Yes.”

“Lowe Bonnie” closes the album. It’s another excellent display of Fussell’s guitar prowess, and his vocals remind me of Warren Zevon’s as he sings about a man slain by his angry lover who instantly regrets the decision to stab him.

Another man leaves behind a world of toil for something he at least hopes is better. The album’s title has no question mark. It’s a statement. There is nothing in the natural world that can compare with what comes beyond it. There is no toil. There is no suffering. There is joy unlike anything here.

Mr. Fussell wants us (and perhaps himself) to remember this, and he’s crafted one of the best records of the year to help us do it.

Keep your mind open.

Jake Xerxes Fussell’s new album now available.

JAKE XERXES FUSSELL’S WHAT IN THE NATURAL WORLD IS OUT TODAY ON
PARADISE OF BACHELORS

STREAM THE WHOLE NEW ALBUM NOW
http://smarturl.it/PoB031

FUSSELL TO SUPPORT JOAN SHELLEY ON SUMMER TOUR

[What In The Natural World album art; painting by Roger Brown]
“Achingly beautiful…a record that yields a procession of hidden treasures. Fussell has an uncanny ability to illuminate the present by propping up a window against the past. Whatever the raw material’s vintage, the protagonist’s pursuit of abstract notion – freedom, empowerment, danger, fulfillment – is every inch as pertinent today.” –Uncut (9/10)

“It’s difficult to imagine another contemporary interpreter delivering a tale of desperation and sadness with such tenderness, warmth, and grace. Jake Xerxes Fussell is a national treasure.” –Aquarium Drunkard

“Fussell freely adapts early American roots music, teasing out new melodic subtleties and overseeing small-band arrangements that bring crystalline folk-rock glow to decades-old songs.” –Chicago Reader

“Jake Xerxes Fussell, the otherworldly guitar player, has an innate ability to infuse traditional folk songs and older works with a revived sense of purpose, a freshly calibrated compass.” –FLOOD
Jake Xerxes Fussell’s second full-length album, What in the Natural World, is out today via Paradise of Bachelors and now available to stream and download in full.

Alongside the release of the album, Oxford American has featured the Durham, North Carolina singer and guitarist with a special emphasis on the fifth track, “Bells of Rhymney.” This arcane coal miner’s lament shares its text, by Welsh poet Idris Davies, with the song popularized by Pete Seeger and the Byrds, complete with personified, protesting bells, but here Jake supplies his own gospel-tinged musical setting.

“I lived in Mississippi for about ten years and several years before I left I was playing music a lot with this guy Reverend John Wilkins (who is a Memphis-based Gospel musician). His father is Robert Wilkins, who recorded back in the twenties as a blues singer and later as a gospel musician. So I had to really familiarize myself with that sort of ‘guitar evangelism.’ The approach that I’m using in ‘Bells of Rhymney’ is straight out of that idiom.”

—Jake Xerxes Fussell as told to Oxford American

Fussell will head out on a spring UK and EU tour co-headlining with Daniel Bachman, followed by a summer US tour in support of Joan Shelley (full list of dates below). He will celebrate the album release with a full-band performance (featuring fellow PoB artist Nathan Bowles and Casey Toll of Mt. Moriah) at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill today, March 31, supported by Asheville guitarist Sarah Louise and Carolina Soul DJs.
Stream/Download Jake Xerxes Fussell’s What In The Natural World –
http://smarturl.it/PoB031

Listen to Jake Xerxes Fussell’s “Jump For Joy” –
https://youtu.be/L-cfhokanYs

Listen to Jake Xerxes Fussell’s “Furniture Man” –
https://soundcloud.com/paradise-of-bachelors/furniture-man/s-Ddy4d

Listen to Jake Xerxes Fussell’s “Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?”–
https://soundcloud.com/paradise-of-bachelors/have-you-ever-seen-peaches-growing-on-a-sweet-potato-vine/s-OiQ3Q

Jake Xerxes Fussell US Tour Dates:
March 31 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Nightlight (full band Record Release show) w/ Sarah Louise
April 8 – Oxford, MS @ End of All Music (in-store) w/ Nathan Bowles
April 8 – Oxford, MS @ Proud Larry’s w/ Nathan Bowles
May 31 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop*
June 1 – Milwaukee, WI @ Collectivo*
June 2 – Minneapolis, MN @ Bryant Lake Bowl*
June 3 – Chicago, IL @ Old Town*
June 4 – Cedar Rapids, IA @ CSPH Hall*
June 6 – Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews*
June 7 – Kansas City, MO @ Knuckleheads*
June 8 – St. Louis, MO @ KDHX Stage*
June 9 – Paducah @ Maiden Alley Cinema*
June 10 – Louisville, KY @ Headliners*
June 11 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement*
June 13 – Decatur, GA @ Eddie’s Attic*
June 14 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle*
June 15 – Vienna, VA @ Jammin’ Java*
June 16 – Freehold, NJ @ Concerts in the Studio*
June 17 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*
June 18 – Northampton, MA @ Parlor Room*
June 20 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle*

*supporting Joan Shelley
Purchase What in the Natural World:
From PoB/artist (LP/CD/MP3): http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/pob-031
Other online options (physical/digital/streaming): http://smarturl.it/PoB031

Jake Xerxes Fussell online:
PoB Artist page: http://www.paradiseofbachelors.com/jake-xerxes-fussell
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