Singer, guitarist, and folk music interpreter Jake Xerxes Fussell has shared two singles, “Oh Captain” and the instrumental which follows it on the album, “Three Ravens,” from Out of Sight, Fussell’s forthcoming record due June 7th via Paradise of Bachelors. The album was recently reviewed by Glenn Kimpton on Folk Radio UK who called it “his most beautifully realised album yet.” You can read the full review here.
“It’s a very unusual recording,” Fussell says of “Oh Captain,” a song originally recorded by singer and composer Willis Laurence James in the 1920s for Paramount Studios. “James spent much of his life collecting and interpreting and writing about African American worksongs, yet few have recognized his short, obscure stint as a recording artist. Turns out he was a trained singer who taught in the music department for years at Spelman College, whose library still holds his archive. I became fascinated with him and his work, so this song is my little homage to Dr. James.”
“Three Ravens” in an instrumental track inspired by a copy of Carl Sandburg’s The American Songbag that Fussell found while browsing an estate sale in Oxford, Mississippi. Inside, he found an “If found, please return to” note written by banjo player and singer John Hartford, with his Tennessee address. “I’d been listening a lot to the music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, a member of the Seeger family of folk music fame, but also an important and influential avant-garde composer,” says Fussell. “Her music resides in that interesting place where modern abstract forms and traditional abstract forms collide. Her collection 19 American Folk Songs for Piano includes a wonderful minute-long version of ‘Three Ravens.’ I couldn’t get enough of it, so I went back to my Hartford copy of the Sandburg book (from whom Seeger herself got the tune) and learned it.”
Out of Sight is out on 7 June 2019
Jake Xerxes Fussell Tour Dates
Wed. Sep. 18 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall*
Thu. Sep. 19 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar*
Fri. Sep. 20 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle*
Sun. Sep. 22 – Nashville, TN @ 3rd & Lindsley*
Wed. Sep. 25 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat*
Fri. Sep. 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg*
Sat. Sep. 28 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall*
Sun. Sep. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Petit Campus*
Mon. Sep. 30 – Toronto, ON @ Great Hall*
Wed. Oct. 2 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club*
Thu. Oct. 3 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre*
Fri. Oct. 4 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre*
Sat. Oct. 5 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall*
Tue. Oct. 8 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom*
* = supporting Daniel Norgren
Photo Credit: Brad Bunyea