Singer, guitarist, and folk music interpreter Jake Xerxes Fussell has announced his new album, ‘When I’m Called’. It’s his debut for Fat Possum and is out on 12th July alongside its lead single, ‘Going To Georgia’. Fussell has also announced UK and European tour dates.
‘When I’m Called’ sees Fussell returning to a well of music that holds lifelong sentimental meaning, contemplating the passage of time and the procession of life’s unexpected offerings. The album is produced by James Elkington, mixed by Tucker Martine, and features contributions from Elkington (guitar, piano, dobro, synth, organ, pedal steel, mandola, harmonica, arrangements), Blake Mills (guitar), Joan Shelley (vocals), Ben Whiteley (bass), Joe Westerlund (drums, percussion), Robin Holcomb (vocals), Anna Jacobson (horns), Jean Cook (strings), and Hunter Diamond (woodwinds).
Fussell took an atypical approach to the material on ‘When I’m Called’, often constructing the music from the ground up, before considering what existing source material could be applied to the song. He traces his love of post-war field recordings to his upbringing by song-collecting folklorist parents, whose enthusiasm for their itinerant work surrounded their son in many different kinds of music. That had a profound impact on Fussell’s sense of time around music that, too often, gets treated as a museum piece. “When I was getting really deep into traditional music as a teenager, I tended to see it more in a continuum, like, ‘This is all tied into an ongoing world,’” he says.
Fussell has found himself particularly close to field recordings made in the 1960s and ’70s by painter, musician, and folklorist Art Rosenbaum—one of Fussell’s beloved late mentors, who died in September 2022. and the album’s lead single, ‘Going To Georgia,’ showcasing Fussell’s trademark guitar stylings, is one such tune.
“I learned the traditional song ‘Going to Georgia’ from a few different places so my version is something of a collage” explains Fussell. “There are a number of variants out there. Ralph Stanley played a version of it, as did the great song collector and revivalist/interpreter Paul Clayton. My main source was an early 1980s field recording of The Eller Family of Hiawassee, Georgia, brought to us by artist-documentarians Art and Margo Rosenbaum via their wonderful Folkways anthology Folk Visions & Voices: Traditional Music and Song in Northern Georgia.”
You can listen to ‘Going To Georgia’ below and pre-save/ pre-order the ‘When I’m Called’ here.
Fussell has announced UK and European tour dates in support of ‘When I’m Called’. We don’t have ticket links but you can bookmark his tour page here.
Jake Xerxes Fussell 2024 Tour Dates:
Fri. Aug. 30 – London, UK @ Lafayette
Sat. Aug. 31 – Lewes, UK @ Con Club Lewes nr Brighton
Sun. Sept. 1 – Bristol, UK @ Lantern Hall
Mon. Sept. 2 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Tue. Sept. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ Mono
Wed. Sept. 4 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute
Fri. Sept. 6 – Paris, FR @ L’Archipel
Sat. Sept. 7 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
Sun. Sept. 8 – Rotterdam, NL @ Kantine Walhalla
