On this date in 1992, singer-songwriter Jesse Allen Breckenridge Welles (surname originally spelled Wells) was born in Ozark, Ark., a town of about 3,000 where he grew up with music across a variety of genres treasured by his parents and grandfather. He listened to a radio station that spun classic rock, Motown and old country songs. “If the South is 10 or 15 years behind the times, Ozark was about 30 years,” he said. (New York Times, Feb. 12, 2025)
He bought a guitar at Walmart at age 11 and as a teen played in bands, learning his favorite songs and writing his own. He recorded songs in his mother’s garage that he burned on CDs and sold at school. The U.S. “tradition of wordsmiths” helped him write: “I look to Herman Melville, I look to Walt Whitman, and Cormac McCarthy, and Mark Twain. … I call upon those people to help me sing words.” (American Songwriter, Feb. 20, 2025)
Welles started releasing recordings in 2012 and posting them on sites like SoundCloud and Bandcamp. He performed as Jeh Sea Wells and fronted the bands Dead Indian, Cosmic-American and Welles. His debut studio album was “Red Trees and White Trashes” in 2018.
He and his future wife Kara had moved to Nashville in 2014 but eventually returned to Arkansas without making a big enough impression to stay. Welles continued to gain a regional following, operating out of Fayetteville and attracting fans nationally. He and Kara met when he was 14 and her guitar teacher had just left town. “We were both in junior high, and she was like, ‘Will you give me some guitar lessons?’ And of course, everything I showed her she already knew.” They stayed friends and married in 2019. (Sydney Morning Herald, Dec. 23, 2025)
Describing Welles, the interviewer wrote: “An equal opportunity social commentator, he’s also been a guest on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ (where his left-leaning humanist views rubbed uncomfortably against Rogan’s right-leaning conspiracies).” Welles is wary about “certainty” in any form: “I just don’t think anyone can really purport to know, and you should be wary of anyone who does, and that goes across the board. The same people that come up and tell you, ‘I know what this Bible means, boy,’ just anyone who’s really assured, is someone to keep your distance from.” (Ibid.)
His song “I Ain’t Going to Hell” includes these lines:
“Oh the joy of religious sects/sex
Good luck, pilgrim, on your search
I ain’t going to hell,
but I sure as hell ain’t going to church.”
He started hitting the national and international consciousness by recording short videos of himself playing cover songs and his own compositions on an acoustic guitar in natural settings around his home. The clips started blowing up on TikTok, driving traffic to his YouTube channel and to guest appearances on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Someone dubbed him the TikTok troubador.
He was nominated for four categories at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in 2026: Best Folk Album for “Under The Powerlines,” Best Americana Album for “Middle,” Best American Roots Song for “Middle” and Best Americana Performance for “Horses.”
