After nearly a decade with eclectic indie
Paradise of Bachelors
, Durham-based folksinger
Jake Xerxes Fussell
moves to another Southern-rooted label, Mississippi's
Fat Possum Records
. His fifth LP,
When I'm Called
, reunites him with
James Elkington
, the U.K-born Chicagoan who produced his previous effort, 2022's marvelous
Good and Green Again
. Of all his collaborators so far,
Elkington
might be the most sympathetic, gently urging him into richer sonic pastures while nurturing the attributes that have made
Fussell
one of the 21st century's greatest folk interpreters. At first blush,
bears all the hallmarks of a classic
release: obscure American folk songs, an endearingly laid-back attitude, and that amiable rumbling baritone. But it's also a maturation of the process he began back on his 2015 debut. While
may look to traditional material, he is by no means a traditionalist. His craft has always been the evolution and elevation of his source material.
Take for example the album's title track, which is adapted from a found scrap of paper bearing a child's list of classroom indiscretions. "I will answer when I'm called, I will not breakdance in the hall, I will not laugh when the teacher calls my name," drawls
, nearly two-and-a-half minutes into an ambling guitar groove. Having spent so much of his career breathing new life into arcane folk songs, it's almost a thrill to hear him mention something as relatively contemporary as breakdancing, or in the case of the album's opener,
Andy Warhol
. So much of his music has been so rooted in the far-distant past that even the late 20th century seems jarringly recent. And yet "When I'm Called" and "Andy" are each delivered with the same timelessness as traditional cuts like "Leaving Here, Don't Know Where I'm Going" and the classic sea shanty "Gone to Hilo." As on each of
's albums, he moves the songs into his own special, nuanced space, creating a vibe that is unmistakably his own. This sense of personality feels increasingly rare in folk music which often errs in either self-congratulatory retro-ism or indulgent innovation. In avoiding many of the traditional avenues to authenticity, he achieves it naturally. ~ Timothy Monger