Jake Xerxes Fussell – Out of Sight
Paradise of Bachelors – 7 June 2019
Being a diehard minimalist, I always get a little bit nervous when the copy surrounding a new album describes it as being the first to incorporate a full band line up, especially when the artist at the centre of the instrumentation has such qualities in his stories, vocals and playing as Jake Fussell. I had a similar reaction to Nathan Bowles‘ (who plays the drums here) most recent Plainly Mistaken album but, like with that one, the arrangements on folklorist Fussell’s new one are perfectly balanced and skilfully thought out throughout. In fact, if anything, Out of Sight is an even finer tuned and elegantly nuanced set than his brilliant What in the Natural World, one of my very favourites from 2017.
Like on that album, Jake’s Telecaster takes centre stage from the off, with his signature, slightly lackadaisical picking style sounding immediately like an old friend. The first track here is ‘The River St. Johns’, a song built from a simple romantic fishmonger’s cry of the gold-gilded catch coming ‘just from the river St. Johns.’ This little refrain underpins the song and the backing vocals coming in really reinforce the sense of romance and the past that permeates through it. There is a warmth that runs through Jake’s work both on record and live that, with his sourcing of obscurities, makes him quite unique in the world of travelling folk singers and it is displayed at its finest on this set, with nine songs, including, unusually, two instrumental pieces. ‘Three Ravens’ is an acoustic led piece with the most delicate of pedal steel playing from Nathan Golub and ambient violin from Libby Rodenbough. ’16-20′ is a slightly broader piece with lower drone notes running below the electric guitar line. Apparently, the tune is mainly known as a dance, which makes this version even more interesting in its decision to slow things up some and allow those low notes to eventually almost engulf the guitar.
Elsewhere on the vocal-led pieces, ‘Michael was Hearty’ is adapted from an unaccompanied take on the traditional song performed by Irish travelling singer Thomas McCarthy. Here Jake structures it into a band waltz that softly carries a quiet vocal that is less stark but warmer than the McCarthy version, with Jake’s laid back voice suiting the humorous side of the piece. ‘Oh Captain’ is built on another one of those simple but spot on Telecaster lines, this time backed primarily with piano chords and soft drums. The pedal steel takes the lead on ‘The Rainbow Willow’, the longest track here and one that House and Land have also interpreted on their new Across the Field album. This one is typically considered a murder ballad, a genre Jake finds too broad, but he has arranged it as another band waltz, with each player given space between verses to flex and stretch out the narrative. An unusual choice of music for a murder song you might think, but Jake has his own view on the nature of this one. Like every piece on this album, its history is romantic and rich and Jake’s journey with it always interesting, so it is well worth picking up a hard copy of the record to read the background of each song.
The closer is another fishing song that neatly bookends the set with ‘The River St. Johns’ and it is, much like the first song, a lesson on beauty in simplicity. A deeply felt piece taken in the most part from a recording by a group of Virginia fishermen who sang it while hauling fish from New Jersey in the 50s, ‘Drinking of the Wine’ is a pure prayer to one of life’s finest blessings and Jake and his band play it slowly and gently, with minimal words surrounded by a deep padding of piano, Jake’s guitar, organ and spacious violin and percussion. As it fades out with bright piano chords, there is a warm sense of life affirmation felt that Jake’s music, steeped in history, has a habit of bringing on. Out of Sight is a fascinating set of old songs linked to the present through unpretentiously lovely music and singing. Jake Fussell is a singular talent and very valuable interpreter and this is his most beautifully realised album yet.
Out of Sight is out on 7 June 2019
Photo Credit: Brad Bunyea