Jake Xerxes Fussell Lines Up New Album The Old Beloved Path

Jake Xerxes Fussell is readying a new album for release on September 18, via Fat Possum. The Southern folk singer-songwriter made The Old Beloved Path with producer Ben Whiteley in North Carolina. Leading the record is Fussell’s take on the folk standard “Rock Island Line.” Check that out below.

Though he typically avoids such well-trodden ground, Fussell was inspired to cover the oft-recorded “Rock Island Line” after hearing a Lonnie Donegan recording of the spiritual. In a press release, Fussell said, “The song struck me as very beautiful, but just singing the verses wasn’t working for me. I couldn’t relate. So, I wound up putting it together with an old English nursery rhyme that I had been kicking around. ‘Wire, briar, limberlock/How many geese is in our flock?’ and ‘If you want to ride you got to ride it like you’re flyin’, get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line.’ Marrying those two things, I felt like something worked; it felt like a song to me.”

The Old Beloved Path is the follow-up to When I’m Called, Fussell’s fifth album and Fat Possum debut. Producer Whiteley also plays bass on the LP, and Dominic Billett, Isa Burke, Wayne Horvitz, and Ken Whiteley are among the other musicians. Fussell has a handful of summer dates in the pipeline before a more extensive run across North America and Europe this fall.