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Jake Xerxes Fussell The Old Beloved Path

Sixth album details, tracklist, and pre-order information for the upcoming Fat Possum release

Jake Xerxes Fussell's sixth studio album, The Old Beloved Path, is set for release on September 18, 2026, through Fat Possum Records. It follows his 2024 album, When I'm Called, arriving roughly two years later, and it comes with a head start already built into the announcement: the lead single, "Rock Island Line," is streaming now, and pre-orders for the full record are open, weeks ahead of the release date itself.

The rollout follows a plain sequence. Fussell's own site directs listeners toward Fat Possum and toward "Rock Island Line" as the song to hear first, while the Bandcamp page selling the record spells out exactly what's available and when — the lead track streaming immediately, the rest of the album following on release day. Between the two, the shape of the release is easy to track: a single out now, a pre-order running in the meantime, and the full record landing on September 18.

## Recording and the People Behind It

The album was made with producer Ben Whiteley, recording in North Carolina. Whiteley's name carries some context of its own: he's a member of the band The Weather Station, and he also tours as Fussell's bassist. That means the producer's chair on this record and the bass slot in Fussell's touring band are held by the same person — a detail that sits quietly in the credits but connects the studio work to the live one.

The guest list widens the circle further. Dominic Billett, Isa Burke, Wayne Horvitz, and Ken Whiteley are all named as collaborators on the album, four contributors credited alongside a tracklist that runs to nine songs. A compact song count carrying a comparatively long list of names is its own small piece of information about how the record came together, even before any of the specific contributions are broken down. The announcement also arrived paired with tour dates: Stereogum's coverage lists the first show for August 1 in Lansing, North Carolina, putting Fussell on the road before the album itself is even out.

## Tracklist and What's New

The tracklist runs: No 1, Rock Island Line, Every Time I Go to Town, Rosin Some, Boney, Early Early in the Spring, Boll Weevil, Sandy Land, and Of All The Beast-es in the World. Nine songs in total, and eight of them look backward — traditional pieces arranged by Fussell rather than written from scratch. The exception sits first in the running order: "No 1," a Fussell composition, is the one original credited among eight arrangements of older material.

That split — one new song set against eight traditional arrangements — gives the record a built-in shape: older material carried forward, opened by new writing. That structure also means the tracklist itself carries information beyond song titles — it marks which pieces are new and which are inherited, without requiring outside explanation. Add the producer, the recording location, and the four named collaborators, and the pieces needed to follow the release are already in place.

Stacked together, the timeline is straightforward: a single released ahead of the album, a pre-order open now, a first tour date set for August 1, and the full record due September 18 on Fat Possum. Each piece — the date, the label, the producer, the tracklist, and the pre-order link — is already public. Having a date, a producer, a location, and a full tracklist already on record makes the release straightforward to follow, with each new detail slotting into a timeline that's already filled in.

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