NOW AVAILABLE IN OUR WEB STORE RIGHT HERE.ย
โOne helluva bluesman: my favorite of his generation, and in my opinion, the best young traditional blues artist performing today.โ โGeorge Mitchell
The debut solo album from Jake Xerxes Fussell is out January 27 via the excellent Paradise of Bachelors (Steve Gunn, Hiss Golden Messenger) label out of North Carolina.ย We received a promo CD in the mail the day before Christmas and itโs been in constant rotation since.ย Lots of our customers are familiar with Jake and his music. Jake worked at The End of All Music for the first year we were open.ย He also held a longtime residency at Lamar Lounge as well as the leader of the Thacker Mountain Radio house band The Yalobushwackers.ย Folks around here know Jake.ย Weโve heard his songs.ย Hell, we miss him now that heโs moved to North Carolina.ย But one thing everyone always hassled Jake about while he was in Oxford was why doesnโt he make a record?ย Just make a record, Jake!ย Well he waited and he did it right.ย Jakeโs self-titled record is here.ย Itโs a record full of traditional songs as evidenced in the liner notesโ detailed song histories.ย Jake knows his songs.ย Heโs a song collector.ย ย Heโs learned them throughout his growth as a musician and folklorist and very much made them his own.ย Jake just has a way of making a song his, much like Dylan does.ย I guess what I mean is when you hear Jakeโs renditions of these old songs they sound like theyโre his songs, like he wrote them.ย Theyโre more than just covers songs.ย Jakeโs adding to the lineage of the songโs life.
The production on the recordโby our buddy William Tylerโmatches Jakeโs song sensibilities perfectly and brings the songs out in a way that seems fresh and classic at the same time.ย Tylerโs production and guitar playing give the songs a haunting ambienceโsometimes a soft background droneโbut still find the groove at times and back off when Jakeโs guitar and voice are all thatโs needed.ย The backing band here is top-notch Nashville A-list.ย These guys have played on some of the best records to come out of Nashville (Bonnie Prince Billy, Marty Stuart, Silver Jews, Bill Monroe) and they find the pocket perfectly.
Jake grew up in South Georgia and Alabama and this record is very much influenced by those places.ย The cover art is from the Columbus Museum in Columbus, GA and features a beautiful painting of a stream surrounded by pines by the artist Francis De LaPorteโthe inner sleeve features a circus photograph by Jakeโs father, folklorist Fred Fussell.ย Several of the songs were originally performed by the Georgia Sea Island Singers (check out their record on Mississippi Records or the new Bessie Jones release on Tompkins Square) and blues guitarist Precious Bryant among many others.ย Jake owes a lot to his Georgia upbringing.ย His style is very much of the area and is steeped in the folklore and songs that originated there.ย ย But Jake isnโt tied down to that place.ย Heโs a traveler, a rambler. Heโs taken these songs, these stories, these influences and used them.ย Heโs become a damn fine musician and storyteller.ย Weโll always be Jakeโs friend but weโre also one of his number one fans and heโs made the record we needed.
Read the full press release from Paradise of Bachelors here.