Arkansas singer-songwriter Jesse Welles performed the first of two consecutive nights at First Avenue in Minneapolis on Thursday. Welles, who has been compared to Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan by virtue of his socially conscious lyrics, appeared onstage solo and with his band. Perhaps in a nod to the hometown of Peanuts creator and cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (who was born and raised in St. Paul and later lived in Minneapolis and Richfield before relocating to California), Welles appeared onstage wearing a Snoopy T-shirt.

S.G. Goodman, winner of the Americana Music Association’s 2023 Emerging Artist of the Year honor, opened the show. Goodman’s latest album is 2025’s Planting by the Signs.

Jesse Welles

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S.G. Goodman

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Set List

Jesse Welles via setlist.fm

Solo:

Sometimes You Bomb Iran

The Great Caucasian God

Join Ice

The List

United Health

Poor

Full Band:

Domestic Error

Philanthropist

Red

God, Abraham, & Xanax

Paranoid (Black Sabbath cover)

War is a God

Masks Off

Change Is in the Air

Malaise

It Don’t Come Easy

Have You Ever Seen the Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)

Solo:

Bugs

Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan cover)

Gilgamesh

Anything But Me

Turtles

Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver cover)

Encore:

Fear is the Mind Killer

War Isn't Murder