Jesse Welles

There’s a long tradition of musicians picking up an acoustic guitar and telling the world exactly what’s wrong with it. Woody Guthrie did it. Dylan did it. And now Jesse Welles is carrying that particular American burden, armed with a guitar, a sharp tongue, and an apparent unwillingness to keep his opinions to himself.

We came for the political songs. The biting observations, the uncomfortable truths, the kind of songwriting that makes you laugh before realizing the joke isn’t particularly funny. But curiosity brought us just as much as familiarity. What does a Jesse Welles show look like beyond the songs that travel around the internet? What happens when the protest singer has an entire evening to fill?

The answer is a musician with considerably more range than a collection of viral political commentary might suggest. There’s folk, country, humor, and a storyteller’s instinct running through it all. Songs about the state of the world sit alongside more personal observations about the strange business of being human. The political material might get people through the door, but there’s a larger songwriter waiting for them inside.

A couple of Chicken Scratches from Little Harpeth Brewing and some cold PBRs kept the beer side of things covered. Nothing fancy, just a local brew and a working-class classic, which felt particularly appropriate for an evening of music that doesn’t have much patience for pretense. The Pinnacle once again delivered the kind of sound that lets a voice and a guitar command a room without needing an army of amplifiers.

There’s something refreshing about watching a musician who still believes songs can say something important. Not every tune needs to change the world. Sometimes it’s enough to make people laugh, think, or recognize a little of themselves in someone else’s words. We came to hear what Jesse Welles had to say about politics. We left with a better understanding of what else he had to say.