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.
