If you’ve been around social media in the last couple of years, you’re bound to have caught the new folk artist, Jesse Welles, who has been labeled this generation’s Bob Dylan. He writes about “playlists, blue checks, and follows and streams” and world figures like Netanyahu and Elon Musk, and everything is updated to reflect our current times, but behind his songs is the same “hippy,” folky roots that made artists like John Lennon and Woodie Guthrie popular.
His stuff usually cuts to the heart, using catchy finger-plucked guitar and his satisfying, grizzly voice singing practically genius poetry. “War isn’t murder / good men don’t die / children don’t starve / and all women survive / ‘war isn’t murder’ / that’s what they say / when you’re fighting the Devil / murder’s okay.”
He has a deep mind, which has managed to draw praise from both sides of the American political spectrum.
Jesse Welles doesn't just do viral videos, but great albums too
On his first album of songs, Hells Welles, he lengthened some of his viral videos and added some harmonies and beautiful musical interludes. He has, however, just come out with an album of songs called Middle that ups the ante and brings him out of the folk kitsch world into downright good rock and roll.
On his latest album, he deals less in charm and wit and more in deep-feeling poetry and sophisticated musical composition. His album is an impressive addition to the canon of folk and rock that came before him, artists like George Harrison and even more modern artists, and establishes him as not just a novel soundbite maker but an artist to be taken seriously.
He shows his range on the album by steering away from his chant-like creations into the melodic sensibilities utilized in the best songwriting.
He sings about some of the same stuff he did before but digs deeper into the existential experience, touting transcendental meditation and brotherly love, while remaining humble about what he actually has to offer the world, in song or otherwise. “When true simplicity is gained / Will I then be self-assured? / How I envy all them stones / They don't never say a word.”
If you wanna see what one of America's (and the world’s) best folk artists creating now can do, check out his new album. It's a step, I think, in the right direction, for someone who wants to be respected as a real musician and artist on the world stage.