North Carolina-based traditional musician Jake Xerxes Fussell approaches ostensibly antique songs of the American south as a folklorist and as a creative musician, pulling out the relatable bits and going for the unexpected arrangements, including pedal steel, horns, and strings. He’s a lifelong student and researcher of folk and roots and blues music – second generation, actually, since his father was also a folklorist – and can hold forth on murder ballads, disaster songs, Choctaw fiddlers, sea shanties, and blues and gospel songs. He plays some of these elegantly- arranged and composed story-songs from his latest album, Good and Green Again, for the Soundcheck Podcast. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: “Love Farewell,” “The Golden Willow Tree”

Watch "Love Farewell":

Watch “The Golden Willow Tree”: