SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Farm Aid will hold its 40th annual concert later today in Minneapolis. The nonprofit was founded by musicians Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Cougar Mellencamp back in 1985 to support family farms across America. One of the newer voices taking to the stage this year is Jesse Welles, a musician whose social media posts have attracted a large online following. Minnesota Public Radio's Clay Masters has this profile.
CLAY MASTERS, BYLINE: Farm Aid was pretty surreal for Jesse Welles last year. He got an email from John Mellencamp asking him to play, that Welles says he had to vet to make sure it was real. When he showed up to the gig, Dave Matthews rushed up to him.
JESSE WELLES: And he said, my name is David Matthews. I'm a very, very big fan of everything that you're doing. And the whole time I'm just thinking, you're not David. You're - this is - you're Dave Matthews, man (laughter).
MASTERS: Matthews introduced him on stage at last year's Farm Aid in New York State.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAVE MATTHEWS: I think he's one of the best songwriters I've ever heard in my life. And he's prolific, and he's young and he gives me hope, and he's unbelievable.
MASTERS: Welles has garnered a large following for songs he's written quickly about current events and then posted online, just him standing in a field, singing and playing his guitar.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WAR ISN'T MURDER")
WELLES: (Singing) War isn't murder. Good men don't die. Children don't starve, and all the women survive. War isn't murder.
MASTERS: Welles is 32 years old and had fronted rock bands since he was a kid. He was living in Nashville for a short while but moved back home to Arkansas after his dad had a heart attack last year. Welles says he was considering hanging up music.
WELLES: In the face of that potential death, I thought we don't have very long. I can repurpose this craft that I've been working on all these years, and I'll sing the news. I'll sing the state of affairs.
MASTERS: "War Isn't Murder" was the first song he posted in this style, a song about countries minimizing casualties during wartime. It was posted when people were protesting Israel's war in Gaza on college campuses.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WAR ISN'T MURDER")
WELLES: (Singing) That's what they say. When you're fighting the devil, murder's OK. War isn't murder. They're called casualties. There ain't a veteran with a good night's sleep. Let's talk about dead people.
MASTERS: The song has more than 2 million views online.
WELLES: All you must do is write your tune and play it to your phone and let the public be the judge of your craft.
MASTERS: This one was posted after a Boeing whistleblower who raised concerns about defects with the company's 737 Max jets died of an infection.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHISTLE BOEING")
WELLES: (Singing) You can know a lot. You can know a little. But whatever you know, just don't blow the whistle. You can toot a flute. You can play the fiddle. But whatever you do, just don't blow the whistle.
MASTERS: Musician and Farm Aid board member Margo Price says Welles is a needed voice in music.
MARGO PRICE: He has such a penchant for really documenting the times and doing it in a poetic way. We need more voices like that.
MASTERS: In "Domestic Error," he sings about the country's troubled times.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOMESTIC ERROR")
WELLES: (Singing) If I ever want to see that flag up high, I'm going to have to cut the pole in half. 'Cause most of the time, most of our lives, it's been flying down at half-mast. Hotels, casinos and spaceships, Teslas and tunnels are fine. Folks get too close to the big White House, and they lose their [expletive] minds.
MASTERS: As for his songwriting craft, Welles says the lyrics usually dictate the sound of his songs.
WELLES: Once you put a line to a melody, in a way, something alchemical happens, and you won't necessarily be able to change the melody after that. After that first hearing, you are, in a way, tattooed.
MASTERS: Here in this song, he's critical of the baby boomer generation.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE GREAT CAUCASIAN GOD")
WELLES: (Singing) There is a foolish generation, squandered all their father's pay. They are running out of time left to enjoy. They would kill and eat their own if the TV told them so. So they're keen to watch the world burn just to make a point.
MASTERS: Organizers of Farm Aid say Welles is a great addition to the lineup of artists, as many of their festivalgoers have become concerned about corporate power and consolidation. It's true to Farm Aid's mission of not only helping farmers but also using music to amplify its message these last four decades.
For NPR News, I'm Clay Masters in Minneapolis.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE GREAT CAUCASIAN GOD")
WELLES: (Singing) Does not the Lord abide in Texas, and in Waco and the rest of every Israel that hubris ever claimed? Does the Lord abide in prisons full of men with holy visions? Don't the Lord abide in every tent and... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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