Jake Xerxes Fussell is a 44 year old singer/songwriter from Columbus, Georgia who made his eponymous full-length debut over a decade. He would go onto follow it up with What in the Natural as well as Out of Sight and Good & Green Again preceding him signing to Fat Possum Records. His debut for the label When I Called arrived only a couple years & coming off the soundtrack to Rebuilding last fall, he’s making a secular comeback for his 6th studio LP.

“#1” has producer Ben Whiteley playing bass & organ as well as Wayne Horvitz on harmonica for a compositional intro whereas “Rock Island Line” embraces an Americana vibe covering an old traditional folk standard. “Every Time I Go to Town” acoustically sings about what occurs whenever he revisits his neck of the woods but after “Rosin Some” declaring today to be the day to chew on some resinous pine tree material, “Boney” hits us with another rendition of a traditional work song.

We have Jake pairing Ben & Dominic Billett for synthesizer duties so he can cover the British folk standard “Early, Early in the Spring” to further commence the 2nd half of The Old Beloved Path while “Boll Weevil” gives us his own take on a track Lead Belly recorded nearly a century ago including parts where Isa Burke’s playing a fiddle & mandolin. “Sandy Land” covers a traditional folk song dating back to the 19th century & “Of All the Beast-est in the World” sends it all off with this acoustic 114 second closer singing about how he’d rather be a painter.

Creatively stemming from Jake Xerxes Fussell’s perception of traditional music becoming increasingly intense as he gets older, The Old Beloved Pathachieves the goal Ben Whiteley had set out in the studio documenting a handful of musicians providing live instrumentation for a half hour’s worth of folk music reimagined that further. If anyone else has heard the Minyo Crusaders’ 3rd album From Japan with Love earlier this summer, you’re probably gonna like this as much since it additionally captures his growth as an artist rather than sounding vaguely similar to those who came before him.

Score: 3.5/5

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