Album Review: Jake Xerxes Fussell – When I’m Called

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North Carolina native and folk and traditional music explorer Jake Xerxes Fussell is in a wistful mood for his first album on Fat Possum. When we recently spent time discussing When I’m Called (read the interview here), Jake mentioned his fondness for old slow burner records, and this set is a masterclass in subtlety and quietly complex music. Again utilising James Elkington’s skills as producer, the sound allows an acoustic guitar core to provide the main structure of the songs, a move that gives Jake’s voice space to not overreach, lending the set a sense of quietude and gentle confidence.

There is also a feeling of unaffected innocence to many of these songs, along with the idea of travel, which comes through on many tracks. Both of these themes are hinted at in the album art, a quite childlike sketch by Carolina artist Kevin McNamee-Tweed of a horseman looking over his shoulder. The title track is a decent example of this innocence, with the core lyrics coming from a scrap of paper from a school child apparently rebuked. There is also a rendition of the English nursery rhyme Who Killed Poor Robin (often titled Who Killed Cock Robin, perhaps suggesting Jake’s natural leaning toward the melancholy), gathered from Jake’s mentor Art Rosenbaum, who sadly passed away in the autumn of 2022 and whose field recordings of traditional writings are all over this album.

It is clear after a few listens that this is Jake’s finest set and his most delicately arranged. There is a feather-light touch to much of the music on here that follows on from Good and Green Again but hones that album’s sound to perfection. The title track is reminiscent of Washington from Good and Green Again in that it adds minimal vocals to a beautiful piece of instrumental music, a method Jake has been exploring more in recent years. Cuckoo is also a lesson in delicacy; with this version of the English composer Benjamin Britten’s song played calmly, the verse repeated at an easy pace, with lush strings providing the album’s most luxurious arrangement.

Another high point is Feeing Day, a Scottish love story based around two strangers bonding over ale in a roadside house and sacking off their initial plan of heading to the fair to make ‘a fee’. Beginning with a signature Jake Fussell acoustic line, the last third of the narrative brings in a horn section to add warmth to a beautifully simple story of blossoming romance. What a lovely recording this is. Not a note is wasted across the set, and even the occasional flourishes of strings and brass are added with such a considered touch that they embellish without bringing unnecessary weight to the songs. Jake’s voice is also at its most quietly expressive, giving subtle emotion to the words (the gorgeous Gone to Hilo is a good example of this). Let this one bed in after a few listens and allow its delicate layers to slowly emerge; you’ll feel grateful for such beautifully performed and arranged music.

When I’m Called – Fat Possum Records (12th July 2024)

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