Jake Xerxes Fussell

Durham-based singer/guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell has a history steeped in the traditional music and folklore of the American South. The son of a folklorist, curator, and photographer, Fussell led a somewhat rambling childhood traveling with his father to record old bluesmen, study the cultural vernacular, and collaborate with Native American artists. These early ventures into rural academia birthed in him a great interest in music, and by his teenage years he was active in the old-time folk scene of his native Columbus, Georgia and apprenticing with regional blues guitar legend Precious Bryant. Over the coming years, his studies would take him to California, Mississippi, and eventually Durham, North Carolina. He honed his guitar skills sitting in with countless artists and bands, appearing on A Prairie Home Companion and touring with Rev. John Wilkins. In 2014 he met experimental guitarist William Tyler, who agreed to produce Fussell's first album. Recorded in Nashville with an unusual cast of session veterans and released by North Carolina label Paradise of Bachelors, Fussell's 2015 self-titled debut features his distinctive fingerstyle playing and unique take on ten traditional blues and folk songs.