Folk singer and guitarist Jake Xerxes Fussell has shared details of his new record. The Old Beloved Path, out September 18 on Fat Possum, is Fussell's sixth solo studio album (not including last year's original score for the film Rebuilding), ad follows 2024's When I'm Called.
The folk music interpreter and excavator has also shared the first taste, "Rock Island Line." Listen below:
Of the new track, Fussell states:
"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."
As an artist, Fussell has long woven together folk tunes from across myriad sources, and sometimes subverts expectations with his choices. He explains:
"For people in the folk music world, songs are their religion. But traditional music is not a bee stuck in amber. I tend to think of everyone who plays traditional music as being on a spectrum from conservative to wildly creative. I am somebody who tends to sit on the edge of those two worlds. I don’t always present these songs in a historical context. I have to relate to them personally. I approach these songs through my own worldview."
Fussell will be headed out on an extensive tour, taking him through the US and Europe. Find all those dates down below.

The Old Beloved Path is out September 18. Preorder here. Full tracklist:
1. No. 1
2. Rock Island Line
3. Every Time I Go to Town
4. Rosin Some
5. Boney
6. Early Early in the Spring
7. Boll Weevil
8. Sandy Land
9. Of All The Beast-es in the World
Tour dates:
08/01 Lansing, NC @ Fly Around Festival
08/08 Edmonton, AB @ Edmonton Folk Festival
08/20 Chicago, IL @ Fretboard Summit
09/12 Durham, NC @ The Carolina Theater [Eno River Association 60th Anniversary]
10/02 Liverpool, UK @ St Michael's Church *
10/03 Manchester, UK @ Hallé St Peter's *
10/05 Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club *
10/06 Glasgow, UK @ St Luke's *
10/08 Cork, IE @ Cyprus Avenue
10/09 Galway, IE @ Róisín Dubh
10/10 Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
10/12 Bristol, UK @ St George's *
10/13 Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 *
10/14 London, UK @ Union Chapel *
10/24 Buena Vista, GA @ Pasaquan
11/03 Salt Lake City, UT @ The State Room +
11/04 Boise, ID @ Shrine Social Club +
11/05 Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater +
11/06 Centralia, WA @ The Juice Box +
11/07 Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret +
11/08 Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern +
11/11 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall +
11/12 Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall +
11/13 South Pasadena, CA @ Sid the Cat Auditorium +
11/14 Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar +
12/02 Copenhagen, DK @ Hotel Cecil
12/03 Oslo, NO @ Røverstaden
12/04 Stockholm, SE @ Nalen Klubb
12/05 Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik
12/07 The Hague, NL @ PAARD
12/08 Brussels, BE @ Botanique Rotonde
12/09 Hamburg, DE @ Nachstasyl
12/10 Berlin, DE @ Theater im Delphi
12/11 Cologne, DE @ Stadtgarten
12/12 Paris, FR @ Le Hasard Ludique
12/13 Bruges, BE @ Duyster Festival
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