Over a decade into his career, Jake Xerxes Fussell remains peerless in the world of folk music. The North Carolinian’s interpretations of songs, both familiar and arcane, sound unlike anyone else’s, and more often than not, unlike themselves. There is plenty of blues, folk, and country in his fingerpicking style and his baritone voice radiates Southern warmth, but he doesn’t really come across as a roots artist, at least not in the ways people have come to expect. Fussell is too idiosyncratic and curious for so common a label. With a relaxed delivery completely devoid of striving, he circumvents both staunch traditionalism and the eager pathos of the indie folk crowd. Songs simply marinate in the fields of his imagination, then flow through his voice…
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Rebuilding is a poignant new film about recovery and resilience from American director Max Walker-Silverman and starring hot property Josh O’Connor as a stoic rancher looking to rebuild his life after a wildfire destroys his land. A quiet and sensitive picture, the makers decided the artist to bring its musical side to life was folklore forager and discerning composer Jake Xerxes Fussell, who in turn enlisted the services of producer and musician James Elkington to share the load.
This power couple have plenty of proof of their productivity, most recently with Jake’s lovely When I’m Called album, which James produced and played on, plus 2022’s Good and Green Again, with James in the chair again. For this project, the pair collaborated remotely until…