Ozark, AR · folk · protest

Jesse Welles

2 upcoming festivals

The internet's protest-folk bard — a new topical song every week, Dylan-grade wit aimed at whatever the news cycle just did.

Jesse Welles is a singer-songwriter from Arkansas who built a large audience by posting short, acoustic topical songs online, often written in response to news events within days of them happening. The songs are usually performed solo with guitar and harmonica, in a talking-blues and protest-folk lineage that invites obvious comparisons to Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, and they trade on wordplay and dry humour as much as on argument. He had been making music for years in other styles before the topical songs found an audience, and has since released studio material and toured on the strength of it.

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