Jesse “Keeping Folk Music Alive” on CBS Sunday Morning

Protest songs have long been a force in pop culture, and now they’re making a comeback, thanks in part to singer songwriter Jesse Wells. With Robert Costa, we take note.

The story of America can be told through the lyrics of folk music. As folk singer Pete Seager put it, “A song isn’t a speech. A song is not an editorial. If a song tries to be an editorial or a speech, often it fails as a song. The best songs tell a story, paint a picture, and leave the conclusion up actually to the listener.

And if you’re wondering whether folk music is still relevant today, take a listen to Jesse Wells.

[The Poor]

He is 33 years old with a voice older than his years and a message that speaks across generations. There’s something about right now that just seems to be hitting to have a guy with six strings singing about the times.

Every dog has its day.

[Fat]

Wells can be softspoken in person, but behind the microphone, he sings loud and clear.

[United Health]

Hi, good to meet y’all.

He takes aim at anyone he thinks takesadvantage of working people. The folks in folk music at a Greenidge Village record store last fall. Wells dug through his musical roots and his mother’s influence. She really liked Crosby Stills and Nash and she liked Fleetwood Mac. She liked pretty pretty music, but no one was really talking about Dylan. So, I suppose that was maybe the first solo space mission I flew was to go and find like some folk hard folk music.

He was in New York to perform on CBS’s The Late Show, where he chose a song

that speaks to the unease some feel about our moment in history.

[Join ICE]

Wells is up for four Grammy Awards tonight. Recognition that this Trouador from Ozark, Arkansas never expected, especially considering his talents seemed to be more on the football field rather than the stage.

Is it true your sister once said your voice sounds like burnt toast?

Yes.

You weren’t always comfortable with your voice.

No. No. But burnt toast is still edible.

[War Insn’t Murder]

With that simple and direct burnt toast sound, Wells gets millions of views on social media. He tapes himself alone in the Arkansas Hills.

[No Kings]

With lyrics that can seem ripped from the headlines.

Do you see yourself as a political figure?

A political figure?

Yeah.

No, not at all (laughing). No.

Cuz these are sometimes pretty charged songs, right?

A political figure…

Those songs got their start here in his spare bedroom turned studio.

Show us something that you’re working on. Well, I just did this one the other day.

[Peace Like a River]

I like that. It’s beautiful. You think you’re a little shy sometimes talking about your music and what it all means and what you’re really trying to say.

I can’t tell you what it means. Like it’s up it’s up to everybody. Nobody is going to paint anything and and tell you this is what I mean when I painted this. You know, that’s no fun. That takes away your experience.

For Jesse Wells, the meaning and the experience of folk music is about keeping its long tradition alive and relevant for audiences today. You feel connected to that tradition, that folk tradition. I think it’s important that it doesn’t go away. It’s something that, you know, has been going on. It’s been going on for centuries and centuries. You just, you wake up one morning, you go, “This is what I do. This is what I was supposed to do.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jesse-welles-keeping-the-spirit-of-american-folk-music-alive/