Jesse Welles

From the venue:

Jesse Welles unassumingly upholds and continues the tradition of traveling troubadours, relaying the news, putting pain into words, and healing with a little humor. Fearless, he reports from the frontlines of a divided country on the brink, addressing inequalities and injustices, cutting through all bullshit and driving directly to the source of the matter. His songs leave the same mark in front of a sold-out club as they do under the unbiased eye of a smartphone camera as he strums his guitar alone in the wilderness of Arkansas. Following tens of millions of streams and a groundswell of acclaim from Rolling Stone, the New York Times, and more, the singer, songwriter, and guitar player cuts deep on his 2025 full-length album Middle. "Breathe to write, write to breathe," he says. "Humans are meant to create, so I'm gonna create music and keep releasing it constantly."

Jesse calls Ozark, AR home. Growing up, his father worked as a mechanic, and his mom a school teacher. Early on, his grandpa copied The Beatles' White Album and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for Jesse. At 12-years-old, he finally scrounged up enough to dough for a “$56 first act guitar from Walmart.” It became like another limb. He fed his obsession by checking CDs out of the public library and ripping them to the family computer, embracing classics from Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Woody Guthrie.

Relocating to Nashville, he launched his eponymous band Welles, releasing music and touring incessantly. He logged 280 shows in a year, canvassing North America and Europe alongside the likes of Royal Blood, Highly Suspect, Greta Van Fleet, and Dead Sara. Dropped from his old label (mid-Pandemic), he quit a job at a vegan meat manufacturer and returned to Arkansas. In February 2024, life changed again when dad suffered a heart attack. Sitting in his father’s hospital room with a Woody Guthrie biography on his lap, Jesse realized what he needed to do.