Song of the Day 11/28: Jesse Welles, “Join ICE”
Jesse Welles might seem like an overnight sensation, but like most overnight sensations it took him more than a decade to get to the big night. Now he’s there, capturing four Grammy nominations, equalling the number of albums he’s released this year.
The nominations are for “Horses” as the best Americana performance, “Middle” as best American Roots song and its LP as the best Americana album, and “Under the Powerlines (April 24-September 24)” as best folk album. But he’s arguably gained the most attention for his series of political protest songs, which have drawn comparisons to Woody Guthrie and early Bob Dylan.
Like those two forebears, Welles writes quickly, and his sardonic sense of humor has made him the Randy Rainbow of the second Trump administration. When Steven Colbert had Welles on his show last week, he didn’t ask him to play any of his Grammy-nominated tunes. He played his recruiting song for the most hated agency in the country.
Brilliant song! Welles has the social consciousness of Phil Ochs, and the humor of John Prine. Dylan, as great a song writer and poet as he is/was, wrote very few protest songs.
Sounds as though Stephen Colbert is getting as many digs in as he can before his show goes off the air.
Great, ain’t it?. Following this fellow for over 2 years and his songs are so unique in humor, or deep truths or lunacy, so pleased for him…ppl keep posting his older stuff which had good lyrics with ‘shitty bands’ as he called then in one of his newer songs. So ya couldn’t hear the lyrics. So there ya go.
On YT in April of 2014 there is a 30-minute interview with him and a radio station in Pittsburgh before a concert there. ‘live and direct with Jesse Welles.’ It is very cool, he is shy but lots of elements in his playing are shared…the road to hell in this country has been brutal but after a tough sing we sing Bugs.. at 76 now, I am thrilled to hear him sing g truths. After losing Tom Petty this too is good. 12/1/2025 ✌🏽💙🎵NO Kings.