Mainstream renditions usually leave out the verses about private property and public assistance

    • IamMoonPie@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Nah, Jessie wells is a useless tool. He talks a good talk, but when asked to speak about genocide he suddenly had nothing to say other than “I can see both sides”.

      He is a fence sitting centrist who realized the only way he’d make it is if he seemed like folk protest musician.

      He is not.

    • JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I dig his message but something about his music just grinds in my ears. I’m not sure exactly what it is, or why I don’t feel the same way about Guthrie. Maybe something to do with finding him on Instagram biased me, but that seems far fetched.

      • BauerBender@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        His music has a message but it lacks anything catchy. Rarely a chorus. It’s not the most enjoyable music.

      • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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        24 hours ago

        I found him on yt and was also initially trepidatious for that reason. The low production of his videos (pretty much all are one shot/one take playing a song outdoors) and clear lack of algorithmic support have largely assuaged those concerns. There are of course more radical acts I absolutely love, but Wingnut Dishwasher’s Union or Andrew Jackson Jihad are for a much smaller audience. I’m glad he’s doing what he does and appreciate being able to relate to his music along with my family

      • cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        Just listened to some of his songs and he just sounds like a cheap imitation of the great folk singers of the 60s and 70s and he’s completely on the nose with his lyrics. Reminds me a lot of James McMurtry and Jason Isbell, but less interesting musically.

        • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
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          24 hours ago

          I’m going to restate this take more positively: continuing in the tradition of Guthrie and Dylan, Wells’s direct lyricism and simple folk melodies provide a much needed continuity with the American counterculture of yesteryear

        • bestagon@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          Cheap imitation is good enough for me. Those guys were all cheap imitations of the artists of the 30s and 40s anyway