An overnight sensation after a decade plus of operating on the fringes of the music landscape, Jesse Welles is WXPN’s new Artist To Watch. A fast-rising singer and songwriter hailing from Ozark, Arkansas, his homespun songs, videos, and viral Tiktok clips have seen him building a loyal fanbase over the past year.
Beginning under the name of Jeh Sea Wells around 2012 posting home-made recordings to Soundcloud and Bandcamp, he has also released music as Dead Indian, Cosmic American, and Welles (who recorded a World Cafe interview back in 2018!), had nearly given up on music when his father had a heart attack in 2024, and he tossed caution to the wind and dropped the rock band style to adopt a more folkie sound, and began posting solo videos online for topical songs about capitalism, microplastics, cancer, United Health and more, with a song released in the weeks after the killing of United Healthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson. The sound has connected online and now on his sold-out tour, as witnessed at a gig downstairs at WCL in early February, where the crowd sang along to many of Jesse’s songs.
With three albums released in nine months in this new style, one is reminded of early Dylan (the crowd lost their minds for every harmonica solo in this post-A Complete Unknown moment!), but also bits of Jonathan Richman, John Wesley Harding, Mt. Joy (whose Matt Quinn joined Jesse at WCL to cover CCR and the Velvet Underground), and Courtney Barnett, as his live show includes both solo songs and a set with a trio that shares Barnett’s ramshackle classic rock vibe.
Jesse doesn’t have any more dates scheduled for Philly this year, but he’s been added to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island this July.