Wes Freed

Nice article HERE about living Richmond legend Wes Freed. I know him mostly from his distinctive Drive-By Truckers album covers, but he's spent decades in the city being an artist and musician, becoming a sort of family tree connecting countless projects together. A quietly influential figure, for sure:

Some of your older flyers even have Black Lives Matter references in them, do you consider your work political?Well I suppose, as someone spray-painted on a wall once, all art becomes political. I’ve always been a political creature, I guess. Got turned on as a kid by Jimmy Carter’s election. Growing up on a farm and seeing someone like him, who was a small-town farmer, it was inspiring. I’m actually working on [a painting] of him and his wife for a friend of the family – and it’s going to be a birthday gift to [Carter]. But he’s hard to draw without looking like a caricature, and I don’t want it to look like that.  

The Truckers are an incredibly progressive [Southern rock] band, they’ve lost fans over it. People are always telling them to just shut up and sing.  

How has the Drive-By Truckers association most changed your life?Between them and the internet, I’ve been able to do this professionally. It’s what I do now. I came down off the ladders in like the mid-aughts. It was their social media maven Jenn Bryant who hooked me up with a website, their social media guy hooked me up with a Facebook page. Either T-shirts or posters [for multigig runs] are available at all their shows. I’ve probably done at least 200 for them. 

Former Xmastime legend The Barber was in Dirtbox with him, according to former Xmastime legend The Barber. I for one, about 15 years ago, emailed him outta the blue asking if he'd do the artwork for my own band's album.

Still waiting to hear back.

You can buy the first book containing a collection of his artwork HERE. Check some of his shit below - his Southern Rock Opera album cover is still one of my favorites of all time.