Whether you just heard your first Jesse Welles song or you’ve been to a dozen shows, this guide will help you find your way around Jesse Welles World.
Jesse has hundreds of songs, dozens of releases, and new material arriving all the time, often posted online the day he writes it. You don’t need to catch up on all of it. Pick a song and follow it.
Songs
446
Bands
Albums
Shows
155
Musicians
Venues
119
Releases
10
Tours
29
Users
462
New to Jesse Welles?
Most people find Jesse through one song, usually a short clip of him alone with an acoustic guitar singing about something in the news. That’s a good place to start, but there’s a lot more behind it: years of garage rock and grunge bands before the folk songs, and a live show that changes every night.
Step 1: Start with the songs
Browse the full Songs archive, or start with a few that fans keep coming back to:
- War Isn’t Murder: one of the songs that introduced a lot of people to Jesse, and the song he most often closes shows with
- The Poor: one of his most played songs live
- Bugs: a fixture of the setlist
- Fat: his most frequent show opener
- Cancer and Payola: two examples of how he turns a headline into a song
- Red: performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
- Horses and Middle: both Grammy-nominated
Here are the favorites according to site users:
| # | Song | Fans | Recent fans |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peace Like a River | 5 | 
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| 2 | Landmines | 4 |
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| 3 | It Don’t Come Easy | 4 |
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| 4 | The Poor | 4 |
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| 5 | War Isn’t Murder | 4 |
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| 6 | Gilgamesh | 4 |
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| 7 | God, Abraham, & Xanax | 4 |
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| 8 | Good Morning America | 4 | 
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| 9 | The Great Caucasian God | 4 |
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| 10 | War Is A God | 4 |
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Or check the homepage for whatever he released most recently.
Step 2: Read the lyrics closely
Jesse’s songs are full of names, events, and references, and a lot of them move fast. Every song page has the full lyrics, and many have fan annotations that explain who and what he’s singing about. War Isn’t Murder is a good example. If you know the story behind a line, or feel inspired by it, feel free to submit your own annotation.
Step 3: Hear him live
Live is where a lot of the songs really come together. Browse the Shows archive by date, tour, venue, or song. Pay special attention to the shows with recordings so you can get a feel for the energy in the room and Jesse’s stage presence. A few to start with:
- Farm Aid, Saratoga Springs, September 21, 2024: his first Farm Aid
- Boulder, April 6, 2025: one of the longest sets on record
Browse favorite shows according to site users:
On the archive of shows, look for a tape icon, these indicate shows with a recording available. Other ways in: look up the show you went to, find out when he played your city in Locations, or check the upcoming dates and see if he’s coming near you.
Step 4: Learn the history
Before the protest folk songs, Jesse spent years fronting rock bands in Arkansas and Nashville. The History page tells the basic story, and each of his earlier projects has its own page with its songs and releases:
- Jeh-Sea Wells: his solo DIY recording alias
- Dead Indian: a grunge-inspired hard rock band in Arkansas
- Cosmic American: the psych-rock follow-up
- Welles: the Nashville rock band signed to 300 Entertainment
- Jesse Welles: the solo work he’s known for today
You can also meet the musicians who have played with him in each band, in the studio, and on tour. If the history is missing any details you know, please contact us or consider contributing.
Keep up with Jesse
Jesse is still writing, releasing, and touring, and the site is built to keep up:
- Latest song: the homepage shows his newest song and how many days it’s been since it came out.
- Latest releases: new albums, EPs, singles, and live records are added to the discography as they come out.
- Upcoming shows: tour dates, venues, and ticket links are on the Shows page.
- Live debuts: the Shows page highlights the latest song to be played live for the first time.
- News: interviews, reviews, and TV appearances are collected on the blog.
For longtime fans
Track your shows
With a free account, log the shows you’ve attended and get your own stats:
- Total shows attended
- Venues and cities you’ve seen him in
- How many different songs you’ve heard live
- Your most-heard songs
- Rarities and debuts you caught
Follow your favorites
Save songs, shows, releases, and musicians so they’re easy to find later. You can even save your own wishlist of songs for a show or a release, these show on your profile so others can see them if you wish.
Hunt for rarities
Because Jesse writes so much, plenty of songs get played live only once or twice before they’re replaced by something newer. Look for songs that were played only a handful of times, songs that came back after a long gap, songs he posted online but has never played live, covers, and one-off debuts tied to the news of the week.
Compare tours
Each tour has its own page, so you can see how the setlist changed from one run to the next, from the Hells Welles tour through Under the Powerlines, Middle, Fear Is the Mind Killer, and the Red Tour. Look at which songs stayed in the set, which ones dropped out, and how often new songs showed up.
Learn to play the songs
Song pages include guitar chords and tabs where we have them, with transpose and capo controls. If you’ve worked out a song that doesn’t have chords yet, submit them.
Check our work
New songs arrive faster than anyone can catalog them, so things will be missing or wrong sometimes. If a lyric is off, a setlist doesn’t match what you heard, or a song isn’t listed yet, log in and fix it, or let us know.
Find a song
The Songs archive can be filtered by band and by originals or covers, and sorted by name or release date. Switch to the Live Stats view to see how often each song has been played. Only remember a line? Use the site search and choose “Lyrics only.”
Find a show
The Shows archive can be filtered by show type, tour, and location. Each show page has its setlist, venue, and links to every song played.
Find a release
The discography lists everything newest first and can be filtered by release type (album, EP, single, live, compilation) and band. Each release has its tracklist and links to listen.
Explore a place
Locations breaks down every show by country, state, city, and venue. See how many times he’s played your town and what he played there.
Add your own history
With an account, you can:
- Log shows you’ve attended
- Annotate lyrics
- Submit chords and tabs
- Add show notes, photos, and setlist images
- Report missing songs and correct details
A few ways to explore
- Start with the latest song
- Start with a song you love
- Start with a show you went to
- Start with a record
- Start with your city
- Start with his story
Ready to dive in?
There’s no wrong way to explore. Read the story behind a lyric, compare how a song changed from its first online post to the stage, find the setlist from the night you were there, or catch his newest song the week it comes out.
An account lets you browse ad-free, track shows, save favorites, and contribute! Don’t worry it’s free and so is your info. It will not be sold or shared with third-parties. Together we can document, annotate, and explore Jesse’s quickly growing work!
