New Release: Under The Powerlines (April 24 – September 24)

In just a six-month span, Jesse Welles dropped more truth on the American music scene than we’ve heard since the sixties. The 30-year-old Arkansas native has been around for a bit with his bands Dead Indian and Cosmic-American. He’s also done plenty of solo work before recently bursting onto the folk scene, just releasing his full-band album Middle last month. His meticulous songwriting, precision guitar plucking, and raspy yet soulful voice may be reminiscent of others from the past but many of his original tunes are straight-up protest songs. They’re smart, funny, and heartbreaking.

Under The Powerlines was recorded last year and is strictly Welles, his acoustic guitar, and harmonica. Most – if not all – of these new songs can be found on his YouTube channel, where you’ll discover Welles out in the field, birds clearly in the vicinity. With a sarcastic twinge, he sings, “War isn’t murder, good men don’t die / Children don’t starve and all the women survive,” and on “Cancer,” he preaches, “It’s like them apocalyptic folks off the newer Mad Max / Monsanto Clause delivered all the cancer in your ass.” He is everyman and has seemingly been through all the maladies about which he sings.

He’s Dylan and Kurt, Tom T. Hall and Fogerty. He is John Prine and Mick. Check out his covers as he breathes new life for a new generation into many of these artists’ classics. Making poignant points is also his speciality. In the beautifully heartbreaking “The Poor,” Welles sows contempt with, “If you worked a little harder then you’d have a lot more / So the blame and the shame’s on you for being so damn poor.”

The singer takes on Big Pharma and the health of average Americans on “Fentanyl,” “Fat,” “Fast Food,” “Ozempic,” “God, Abraham, and Xanax,” and “Vape.” Peppered throughout the dozens of songs are holiday respites such as, “Happy Mother’s Day,” “Happy Easter,” and “Labor Day” with dark twists. Welles won the Saving Country Music Songwriter of the Year award in 2024. Not surprisingly, he is the 2025 recipient of the John Prine Songwriter Fellowship chosen by Prine’s family and the Newport Folk Fest.

Welles doesn’t shy away from politics, either – specifically the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, as witnessed on “That Debate” and “Assassination Attempt” (“Be kind to your neighbors / Have grace where it’s lacking / Cause it’s hot in America, you don’t know who’s packing”). Leaning more toward Woody Guthrie than Tom Morello sonically, Welles espouses the same arguments as these two legends. He may as well scratch, “This machine kills fascists” onto that guitar. Another potshot at the prez is from “The Debate II The Empire Strikes Back” which reads:

We’re gonna save the d-e-m-o-c-r-a-c-y
Why, oh, why
Would you ever believe
A single word they tell you or me?
They’re bloodthirsty for power
And we’re all in the way
You’d have to be insane
To play the games they play

Currently headlining the Fear Is the Mind Killer tour, Welles may just be getting started. As his star rises, buy the music. Get involved. Focus on empathy and compassion. It takes a village and we are the villagers.

#savedemocracy #vote #musicsaves