Jake Xerxes Fussell

Singer, guitarist and folk music scholar from Durham, North Carolina, Jake Xerxes Fussell is the son of renowned historian and folklore curator, Fred C. Fussell – and, according to Ann Powers of NPR – “maybe the leading interpreter of American folk music right now…” He has “a knack for uncovering obscure material and interpreting it with an ever-mingling sense of casual warmth and mirth.” (AllMusic)

Jake Xerxes Fussell ’s 2022 project, Good and Green Again, produced by James Elkington, features several formidable musicians, including Casey Toll on upright bass, Libby Rodenbough on strings, Joe Westerlund on drums, Joseph Decosimo on fiddle, and others. Bonnie “Prince” Billy contributed additional vocals.

Pitchfork writes: “The folk musician’s latest album is a bittersweet collection full of silence and space. Delivered with empathy, his historical subject matter feels rooted in the present.” More praise from The New Yorker: “… Fussell is the rare contemporary to approach folk in its pure form, shunning self-penned compositions about bummer relationships to concentrate on material handed down from bygone, hardened times,” and The Guardian reflects: “(Fussell) is one of the great magpies of American song, collecting forgotten, tarnished gems with a folklorist’s zeal … his renditions aren’t so much cover versions as composites …”

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