Jake Xerxes Fussell - When I’m Called Review
On his fifth album Jake Xerxes Fussell once more dusts off the folk archives to breathe new life into a set of songs about life on the move.
Jake Xerxes Fussell tends not to author his own songs. Instead his trick is to sift through decades worth of old folk material locked away in dusty archives and determine which songs sound most relevant to our modern day. He then reorganises and refits them into his own arrangements and interpretations.
On ‘When I’m Called’, Fussell’s fifth and latest album, he guides us through tales of longing and change in a comforting, warm southern lilt.
The record starts with a song by Gerald ‘The Maestro’ Gaxiola, an artist who tried his hand as a travelling salesman, an aircraft mechanic and a bodybuilder before becoming a prolific artist. On ‘Andy’ he calls out Andy Warhol with a threat of a world that is not big enough for both of them “Coming for you Andy, I’m gonna take away your star / You think you’re the sheriff, I know who you really are”. On ‘Who Killed Poor Robin?’, a song covered by Fussell’s mentor, Art Rosenbaum, amongst others, Fussell is the witness to the funeral of a robin, ended by a sparrow’s bow and arrow. On ‘One Morning in May’, an old British field recording, he sees a lady reject the marriage of a soldier because “I’ve a wife in Columbus and children twice three”.
Fussell sings in a thick voice that relays the benign sadness found on these songs of travel. Fussell considers the merits of Alabama (water that tastes like cherry wine) and Salt Lake City (a salty town) on ‘Leaving Here, Don’t Know Where I’m Going”, another song covered by Rosenbaum.
On ‘Gone to Hilo’, a sea shanty that dates back to the 1930s, he bemoans his friend has gone to Hilo, or to Rio, and sings “What shall I do? / My Johnny’s gone / Johnny’s gone to Hilo / My Johnny’s gone and I’m going too”.
The lyrics and arrangements are often simple and sparse with Fussell found repeating the titles of songs while his acoustic guitar is finger picked with heavy dexterity, like the skilled hand of a master blacksmith knocking shape and form into an object. But not all the songs are Fussell fingerpicking alone. The strings are gently strummed on ‘Feeling Day’ while a mandolin tries to peek into the mix. "Leaving Here, Don’t Know Where I’m Going’ boasts a flutter of guitar, like a butterfly flapping its wings. The arrangement on ‘Cuckoo!’ is more expansive, with swirling strings and a nimbler attack of the guitar that sounds like four hands working their way around the neck. The song benefits from the expansiveness, it sounds like birds in the trees following a jazz musician's lead.
The record comes full circle on ‘Going to Georgia’ where Fussell finally decides on a place he can rest his head and call home. “I’m going to Georgia / I’m going to roam / I’m going to Georgia / For to make it my home / To make it my home” he sings, more content and sure footed over patters of drums, trails of guitar and shocks of slide guitar. Though, it will be nice to see where Fussell takes us next.