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Course 1. Singing the News: Understanding Jesse Welles and the Wellespring Project

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  1. Course 1: Understanding Jesse Wells and the Wellespring Project

An Introductory Course in Modern Folk, Digital Culture, and the Art of Connection
Estimated Time: ≈ 3 hours (full course, including all 6 modules)

Course Overview

In early 2024, a little-known Arkansas musician began posting short, unvarnished videos from his porch, barn, and roadside stops: protest songs about war, healthcare, greed, and love, recorded straight to his phone.

Within months, Jesse Welles had become a viral phenomenon: a "TikTok folk hero" whose voice, humor, and honesty recalled Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan but spoke urgently to the fractured present.

The Wellespring Project grew out of that moment—an effort to understand how art, technology, and community intersect in this new folk revival, and to build digital tools that trace the networks of meaning behind it.

This course, "Singing the News: Understanding Jesse Welles and the Wellespring Project," offers a guided introduction for anyone curious about the artist, the movement he represents, and the digital humanities framework inspired by his work.

What You'll Learn

By completing this course, you will be able to:

  1. Trace the story of Jesse Welles' artistic evolution from Ozark prodigy to modern protest voice.
  2. Understand the context of his 2024–25 "Singing the News" phenomenon and its resonance with earlier folk traditions.
  3. Analyze recurring motifs in his songwriting—war, faith, humor, empathy, and love—and their moral implications.
  4. Recognize how digital culture (smartphones, social platforms, fan communities) reshapes authenticity and storytelling.
  5. Explore the Wellespring Project's use of graph databases and digital humanities methods to map cultural connections.
  6. Identify future learning paths in data modeling, text analysis, and collaborative digital scholarship.

Course Structure

Module Title Focus
1 Roots and Influences:
Growing Up in Ozark		 Introduces Jesse Welles, his viral rise,
and the folk lineage that frames it.
2 Experimentation and Emergence:
Finding a Voice		 Explores early releases, bands, and artistic
philosophy.
3 The Welles Era: Noise,
Recognition & Reckoning		 Examines the 2018 debut album and the
culture of 21st-century rock revival.
4 Silence to Song: Reinvention and
the Rise of "Singing the News"		 Chronicles the creative rebirth and
digital-folk phenomenon.
5 The Art of Relevance: Themes,
Motifs, and Modern Protest		 Analyzes his lyrics, humor, and empathy as
forms of protest and connection.
6 The Wellespring Project:
From Songs to Systems		 Concludes with the digital humanities
framework and future courses.

Each module takes roughly 20–30 minutes, includes multimedia examples, reflection prompts, and links to readings, interviews, and original performances.

Who This Course Is For

  • Students and educators exploring digital humanities, music, or cultural studies.
  • Fans and listeners curious about the stories, contexts, and meanings behind Welles' songs.
  • Researchers and developers interested in applying graph databases, NLP, or cultural analytics to creative work.
  • Collaborators who wish to contribute to the Wellespring Project's open, evolving archive.

No technical background is required: only curiosity and a willingness to follow connections between art and data.

Course Navigation

  • Begin with Module 1: Roots and Influences.
  • View the full course map in the sidebar (left side of screen). For readers on large-screen devices. A module-level section navigation sidebar will be available on the right.
  • Access readings, lyric sets, and discussion prompts under each module's "Resources" section.

About the author

Darrell J. Rohl Darrell J. Rohl

Scholar of archaeology, heritage, and digital tools in the humanities and social sciences. Founder of the Wellespring Project.

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Updated on Nov 6, 2025