Jake Xerxes Fussell released "Boney" and "Boll Weevil" on August 18, the latest singles from his upcoming album, The Old Beloved Path, due September 18 via Fat Possum Records. Both songs draw on older folk traditions: "Boney" comes out of the maritime worksong tradition, a rarely recorded "short drag" chantey once sung to keep pace during a brief hauling task aboard a ship, later recorded by musicologist Sam Eskin and by Paul Clayton.
Fussell described "Boney" as tracing the life of Napoleon Bonaparte in a scrambled, unreliable order, with some versions dwelling more on his "dancing and cursing" than his battles, and others having him cross the Rockies instead of the Alps. He called it "a curiously rendered and fractured portrait" of the French emperor, or, he added, simply "a short drag, whichever you prefer."
"Boll Weevil," by contrast, is a well-known American traditional song, and Fussell built his version from several different recorded lineages, citing Sid Selvidge's version as a favorite and Charley Patton's recording as "absolutely foundational," while drawing his own arrangement partly from Blind Willie McTell's early-1940s take. He strung together verses from multiple versions to make his own narrative sense of the song.
"This song deals with themes of encroachment, influx, growth, the invasive, the entrepreneurial, the opportunistic, the parasitic," he explained, noting that different versions of the song treat the boll weevil as anything from a literal pest to a sympathetic figure. "Like so many of us, he's looking for a home."
Both songs follow lead single "Rock Island Line" as previews of The Old Beloved Path, and Fussell's approach across all three tracks leans on his background pulling from archival and folk sources rather than writing entirely original material. The album's September 18 release, tracked on the release calendar, will complete a rollout built around reviving songs from deep in the American country and folk songbook.
The facts
- New singles "Boney" and "Boll Weevil," released August 18, 2026
- From the album The Old Beloved Path, due September 18, 2026 via Fat Possum Records
- "Boney" is a maritime worksong about Napoleon Bonaparte, recorded before by Sam Eskin and Paul Clayton
- "Boll Weevil" draws on recordings by Sid Selvidge, Charley Patton and Blind Willie McTell
- Follows lead single "Rock Island Line"
- Boney and Boll Weevil arrived on August 18, 2026
- Both come from the album The Old Beloved Path
- Rock Island Line was the album's lead single
How this checks out
Developing
Reported by 2 independent outlets
A few outlets have it so far, short of the bar we set for confirmed.
Cited sources 2
Every outlet that reported this, linked to what it published. Equal credits, in alphabetical order.