Jesse Welles – The Modern Dylan?
I never thought I’d call someone the modern-day Bob Dylan…and I certainly never thought I’d want to. But bear with me.
Even if you’re not a fan of The Bard, you can’t deny that every generation needs that acoustic poet who can be a voice of reason in turbulent times. Love him or hate him, Dylan was the go-to voice to narrate the -60s. The Cold War and Vietnam can’t be accurately described without that raspy voice behind the shaky footage of young, drafted men and those campaigning for peace. What do we have in this day and age?
There’s no conscription going just yet, but it’s undeniable that global events and the swivel-eyed psychopaths who seem to be driving them demand a voice to balance what’s going on.
All too late to catch his Scottish debut at The Fruit Market back in December, I had Jesse Welle’s music thrust upon me by the mysterious TikTok algorithm – the sense of irony is not lost on me. I got a short-form video of a long-haired man with his guitar in the middle of a field singing a song about a very recent flashpoint over in the Land of the Free. I can’t remember if my first exposure to Jesse was the result of the recent murder of Renee Good or not, but it wasn’t far off then.
His song ‘Good vs Ice’ is little more than a minute of one of the sharpest kicks to the gut of the current US administration, their weaponisation of their Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and both’s apparent attitude to human lives. One of the most remarkable things about the beautifully crafted song is that it was uploaded the day after the tragedy. That means that it was written, recorded, and uploaded within 24 hours while managing to control the emotion in such a way that it sounds like it’s a classic protest song already.
Hearing something like this compels you to look into his back catalogue and find gems like ‘The List’ which is a happy-go-lucky song that plays around with the sinister subject matter of the secret list of powerful [alleged] paedophiles that is still [allegedly] being protected by those in power, or ‘War Isn’t Murder’ which is a much more traditional anti-war anthem with poetry that can rival anyone you can put on a stage right now.
With the age of social media being what it is, you can see all of these live recordings on Youtube or TikTok, but there’s always the studio recordings that show how much material Jesse is actually putting out. 2025 saw no less than six albums released by him – one every two months on average! The social media output is even more prolific with a constant stream of folk protest songs and poetry that stands out on its own.
You know what makes this music special? Jesse isn’t pandering to any audience. It’s easy to pick up an acoustic guitar and decide you’re going to write songs for the left-wing hippies of the world. But the song ‘Charlie’ is Jesse lamenting the assassination of right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk – or is it? Fans were quick to despair that Welles seemed to be taking an unexpected side, but it’s more of a step back and telling those who revelled in his death to look at themselves. “I heard laughing, I heard glee, but it could have been you… it could have been me” and “you can’t hate the gun and love the gun that shot your rival” shines the hypocrisy on a lot of the reactions around that day.
We’re not the only ones to take notice of Jesse Welles. Legend and all-round super star Joan Baez has accompanied him on both recordings and on the stage. He’s featured on the likes of Joe Rogan and Stephen Colbert’s Late Show. The very fact that I can write this here shows that the bus is leaving the Jesse Welles station and we all must get on before he gets so huge we don’t get to enjoy him in small venues anymore – and I haven’t even mentioned the four Grammy nominations he’s holding…
https://www.isthismusic.com/jesse-welles
Jesse Welles – The Modern Dylan?
