Kallao: You’re listening to the World Cafe. Hi, I’m Kallao. Wells has the look, The Voice, the licks, the hooks, and the attitude of a real rock star. His classic rock meets grunge debut, red trees and white trashes. His alternatively big, chunky, bombastic and driving yet intimate, sensitive, quiet and reserved. There’s no shortage of ballads and barn burners. Jesse Wells grew up in rural Arkansas. Started filling up journals of lyrics at an early age and played music in barns, turkey houses, to be specific. Yes, that’s where turkeys hang out. He also played football for his high schools team, the Ozark Hillbillies.
After graduating from college, Wells moved to Nashville and connected with producer extraordinaire Dave Cobb. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Dave’s worked with everyone in Nashville, like Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton, and if he hasn’t worked with you, give him a week. Wells talks about what it’s like to make the journey to Nashville and recording the single Seventeen.
He’s not afraid to call it like he sees it, even if that means appreciating and experiencing the trials and tribulations of drug use. All so that you might have a better workout, he’ll explain. But first, let’s get started with, Hold me like, I’m leaving.
~ Hold me like I’m Leaving ~
Kallao: Our guest in studio live performance of Hold me like I’m leaving. The debut album is called Red Trees and White Trashes. My name is Kallao. Thanks for joining us today, and thank you Jesse for joining us.
Jesse: Thanks for having me.
Kallao: So Jesse, you grew up in, um. Ozark, Arkansas, yeah, what is the coolest thing to do there?
Jesse: Oh, probably all the fishing. There’s plenty of fishing to do.
Kallao: Were you a fisher growing up?
Jesse: Yeah, yeah, so like boat or stand off the side. Yeah, I was just on on the side until when I was a junior in high school. I bought a canoe and that. Um, kind of that way. I could go and explore on my own, you know, and then I started fishing from the canoe
Kallao: Because it’s better when there’s nobody around. You said, growing up in Arkansas that, you’re playing sports, playing football, track, and that you could, you could end up becoming a meathead just by running with that crowd. I don’t see you as a meathead. Were you a meathead in high school?
Jesse: Maybe a bit. Yeah, I weighed a bit more, you know, just because they had us on school lunches, which are garbage. And then a very strict football regiment, you know, keep you strong.
Kallao: Man, did you play football?
Jesse: Yeah,
Kallao: Oh, goodness, gracious! So what? What changed? Not that there’s anything wrong with playing football
Jesse: Ozark Hillbilly Football! That was our mascot
Kallao: You were the Hillbillies?
Jesse: HPRD Hillbilly Pride runs deep.
Kallao: Um, what changed and and you put down? You put down the shin pass, and you picked up a guitar.
Jesse: Yeah, nothing ever changed. I’ve been playing guitar that whole time and stuff. I just really enjoyed Sports the camaraderie, the the.. you were kind of on a stage on Friday nights. Yeah, it’s just cool. It’s a cool thing to do
Kallao: So while you were on the stage on Friday, Friday nights in the Friday Night Lights. Yeah, I also read that you were playing turkey houses.
Jesse: Yeah, well.
Kallao: So, so you had a different kind of stage? What is a turkey house for those who have never?
Jesse: Yeah, it’s just, it’s a. It’s a big, long building, um. That is open air. Kind of like a like a barn or something in an edge. It’s where you would house turkeys and feed them, develop them, grow them. That sort of thing, but they were emptied out on on my buddy’s land. There’s dirt floor, you know, and you go out. And we plug all our stuff into the wall and jam out there, you know.
Kallao: And I imagine, on a Friday night in Ozark or Saturday night. A lot of people would come to the turkey houses to watch some music.
Jesse: I know that we played some parties and we played like some gazebos, and that sort of thing around in the small, where people would actually combat in the instance of the turkey houses. It was mostly just us. A close group of folks, you know, just playing music?
Kallao: That’s really cool. We’re here with Wells at the new album is called red trees and white trash. As you’re listening to the World Cafe. My name is Kaleo, um, the next song that we’re going to listen to. Is is the debut single from your debut album, 17? Do you remember what bit of lyrics was the spark for this song.
Jesse: Oh. Probably, I think I wrote it chronologically. White skin underwater, you know? She’s somebody’s daughter. I’m pretty sure that’s how it went about. I was on the front porch. I had just gotten back from the pool where I have witnessed some white skin beneath the water.
Kallao: So it started there. Yeah, that’s incredible. I mean, I, and I have, I have the lyric sheet in front of me. It’s, it’s an absolutely gorgeous written song, but the thing that I enjoy the thing that I enjoyed the most about it is, I listened to it first and then caught some of the lyrics and thought I had an idea of what the song was about, and then I went back to the lyric sheet and read the lyrics several times over, and I thought I had a different idea of what the song was about. Um, can you? Can you pull back some of the layers so, uh, to help him help someone who might want to interpret it, because in particular, the line, “When I was young, I was far out. We can hold hands, we can make out, sit silent, or cry out. You’re pretty when you cop out transgendered and washed out, and I can see Pastor’s short hair telling me that you don’t care.” And it goes on from. Yeah, and it’s a very beautiful sentiment, but I, I’m not sure. Are you? The narrator is, is someone else the narrator? What’s what’s going on here in 17?
Jesse: Yeah. I am that narrator of this tune. Um, I just encountered for the first time. Um, my first transgender person, so, and it just blew it, blew my mind, and I was, uh, I was. It was a, you know, formative age. And um, I was just very impressed with it, with the notion of being born wrong. But there’s this bold move
Kallao: But there’s also no judgment, which I like about this.
Jesse: No, no, and of course not.
Kallao: I think there’s something very innocent and cool about it. Would you be willing to play it for us?
Jesse: Of course, of course.
Kallao: Wells is our guest on World Cafe. Let’s listen to a live performance right now of 17 on the World Cafe.
~ Seventeen ~
Kallao: Seventeen, live in studio live performance from Wells on the World Cafe, uh, the album is Red Trees and White Trashes here with Jessie Wells, so you, you leave Ozark, Arkansas, which is pretty small place, um? I mean, what is the population?
Jesse: It’s, I think it’s right around 3, 600, at the moment.
Kallao: Wow, going to Fayetteville, yeah, which is college town, and uh Walmart, Bentonville?
Jesse: Yeah, it’s all this. What is it? NWA Northwest, Arkansas.
Kallao: So, what were you going to school for?
Jesse: Uh, I was going to school for music
Kallao: You, oh, so you were planning. At that point, you knew you wanted to do music when you were getting into college?
Jesse: Yeah, yeah, there’s no, I, I was, just like if I was going to have to study something. Um, I might as well, you know, do the thing. I, like, you know.
Kallao: Did you end up graduating from?
Jesse: Yeah, I went to, I graduated from John Brown University. It’s a little private, Christian institution in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. So, they gave me a tremendous scholarship, and so, you know, you go.
Kallao: Was it based on your music stuff?
Jesse: Yeah, yeah, they need guitar players, I think, or something.
Kallao: Wells is joining us today on the World Cafe. Off to Nashville, from from Fayetteville? It’s been a recent relocation hotbed for several years. Were you ever concerned about, well, this is a great place for access to music and recording, but it’s also incredibly competitive. So sometimes it’s like I’d rather be the big fish in a small pond, as opposed to being one of a million fishes in a big pond.
Jesse: Sure, I didn’t really think of it like that.
Kallao: You just saw it as an opportunity.
Jesse: It’s yeah, and that’s all. That’s all it is, cuz I just knew that, no matter what. Whenever I got there, I’m gonna be the only one doing what I’m doing, and so. You know, because only you do you? And so I’ll just get there and keep my thought process, I think, was out. So I’ll move to Nashville. I keep doing me, do what I’m doing, you know, and we’ll see what happens.
Kallao: What’d your parents think when you said I’m going to go to Nashville and I’m going to go do a music career?
Jesse: They, they kind of looked at me like they had figured I was going to leave at some point. And so they just didn’t know when it was going to be. And they let let me go. You know,
Kallao: We’re here with Wells, Jesse Wells, on World Cafe, and uh, hanging out with him. It’s just been a really enjoyable conversation. There’s there is one thing that I wanted to ask. There’s something I read in an interview that kind of messed with me. And in an interview, you described the themes of your songwriting as poverty, substance abuse, and the party that ensues. The guy asked the question he goes, “Most people view Substance abuse as an altogether bad thing. Do you?” and your response was most people view substance ab? An altogether bad thing, and they ought to if it weren’t. For those of us making the art getting out there on the edges, those folks wouldn’t have a decent soundtrack for the gym.
Jesse: I bet you I didn’t have to work that day. I bet you, that’s what it was I did. I didn’t go into work, so I was feeling like an artist sitting at home doing some writing, drinking some coffee, whatever. And I thought, well, if it weren’t for us artists you guys at the gym wouldn’t have anything to listen to? Which is just ridiculous.
Kallao: Actually, this brings it back to a better question, which is to say how much your music do you, it doesn’t. How much your music needs that inspiration.
Jesse: I don’t ever write anything down, inebriated. I don’t get a whole lot done in that case, so most of my stuff is done in the morning time, uh, with some coffee after the evening. You know, we we all on imbibe and have good old times, and that sort of thing, but um. You gotta take care of yourself.
Kallao: That’s a good point.
Jesse: It’s a long road.
Kallao: Long road, and you were only 23. So please take care of yourself.
Jesse: I shall.
Kallao: Excellent, uh, you want to take us out with little rock and roll?
Jesse: Of course!
Kallao: It’s Wells on the World Cafe.
~ Rock N Roll ~
Kallao: Wells, live in studio here on the World Cafe rock and roll from the debut album, Red Trees, and White Trashes. Jesse, who’s been rocking with you today? Give a shout out to you guys
Jesse: Dude, uh, we got Davey over here on the bass that is Davey of Vid Nelson. We have Jordan roach for playing the kit like a madman, and Marshall, Willard ride, or die on the ax.
Kallao: Love it, Jesse! Thank you so much for coming in and playing some great songs. Sharing some stories with us, we’re really stoked about your debut album. Congratulations on it!
Jesse: Thank you, thank you!
Kallao: And come back to the come back and see us.
Jesse: Oh please, yeah, have me back. I’d love to see you again.
Kallao: Wells, our guest in studio, I’m Kallao, We’ll be back in a moment on the World Cafe.
Welles On World Cafe, NPR, June 15, 2018, Stephen Kallao
https://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2018/06/15/619242146/welles-on-world-cafe
