More than just a nuanced folk singer and guitarist, current North Carolinian Jake Xerxes Fussell is a legendary interpreter of American folk music who reimagines traditional songs with his own sensibilities, dynamic fingerpicking, and intimate vocals.
He will be returning to Chattanooga to perform at Songbirds on Thursday, December 4th. His opening act will be the rising folk artist from Nashville, TN, Ziona Riley.
Raised and steeped in the vernacular and culture of the Southeast, Fussell was born in Columbus, GA, and grew up with a folklorist father, Fred Fussell, who would often take Jake with him during field trips throughout the Southeast, where they would immerse themselves in the traditions and regional music of the people they would encounter.
This is where Fussell began to discover his love for folk music and the culture of the people. When reimagining these traditional folk tracks, sea shanties, old blues, and Appalachian ballads, he often draws on historical field recordings, archived collections, and even the Library of Congress.
Fussell treats these songs like living, breathing things, with a pulse of their own. In his own words, his job is not necessarily to preserve them, like someone might do with old songs of their grandparents, but to be someone who acts as a free agent, where he is able to pick and choose which songs he works with to breathe new life into.
Songs like “Love Farewell,” “The River St. Johns,” and “Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing On a Sweet Potato Vine” are some of his more popular tracks and are unique reimaginings of incredible older songs that Fussell has shed a new light on.
This year marks a decade since he released his self-titled debut album and ten years of crafting and honoring a tradition in sound that is often profound, sometimes funny, other times melancholic, and always full of humanity.
In speaking with Fussell about his time growing up in a family of artists and touring around these regional scenes, he mentioned how much it formed his journey in life and as a musician.
“It totally formed me as a kid. I became interested in traditional music early on. I guess when I was about twelve or thirteen it became more serious for me. It became something I knew I really wanted to pursue.
I consider myself fortunate that I was able to be around such great musicians. We were surrounded by people who were documentarians. I met a lot of people who were studying, thinking, writing, and photographing traditional folk culture. I feel lucky that I was exposed to all that stuff and different ways of thinking about it early on.”
One of the main goals in reimagining these classic songs for Fussell is to introduce audiences to new music and the source material that he draws from in his work.
“I find that if I am really conservative in my interpretation and close to the source material on a certain level, it’s like, what’s the point? If someone else did it that way, then why should I be doing it the exact same way.
You sound like yourself no matter what. For me, I always thought I’m going to sound like myself, so why not try to sing it like me? I always try to be really transparent about my sources when I put a record out; each song has a little citation there, and I encourage people to look those recordings up if they’re not familiar with them.”
Recently, Fussell had a unique opportunity to do an original score for the film Rebuilding, a drama directed by Max Walker-Silverman, released on November 14, 2025. This was Fussell’s first time creating completely original material, and he enlisted the help of his longtime friend and collaborator, James Elkington. Fussell mentioned that the process was incredibly rewarding but at times also very challenging.
“I had worked on documentaries and some short films before, but nothing of this magnitude. It was exciting, it was challenging, and it was, at times, a little overwhelming. Immediately, when they sent me the film, there was a rough cut of it with placeholder music, so I got some indication of the sort of moods that they wanted in each scene, generally.
We kind of had a blueprint for that, and then we went into the studio with Max, the director, and we were able to live track a lot of stuff as we were watching the screen go back. That was an amazing experience, being able to live score. It was a different kind of experience for me. It gave me a real respect for people who are set composers. A lot of work, but I found it to be really rewarding.”
When asked about his return to Chattanooga, he mentioned how close he felt to the city and how excited he is to perform here.
“My boys love Chattanooga. It’s a beautiful town. I’ve always felt some strange fits of kinship with Chattanooga, even though I don’t know it well, just because it’s a river town, and I grew up in a river town, Columbus, GA. I’m looking forward to being back.”
Jake is known for his uncanny ability to bring a story to life again with his magical soundscapes, and to create snapshots of people, places, and certain moments in time in a way that is mesmerizing, beautiful, and impressive. At times it feels like he’s doing a high wire act, though he always manages to pull it off.
Jake Xerxes Fussell
- 7 p.m. December 4. $25-$31.
- Songbirds
- 206 West Main Street, Chattanooga, TN.
- songbirdsfoundation.org