Born in Arkansas, Welles released his debut studio album Red Trees and White Trashes, on which Dave Cobb was a producer for three songs.
[12] Under the mononym Welles, he released the single "Rock N Roll" in April 2018, in promotion of his then-upcoming debut studio album Red Trees and White Trashes.
Reviewing the album for NPR, music critic Ann Powers wrote, "Red Trees and White Trashes has the heft and complexity to likely earn a few Grammy nominations; but it's also obvious that Wells will always be comfortable in some dirty rock and roll kitchen where, as he says in one song, 'everyone's kinda ugly in that way that looks pretty,' girls in blue bobs are smoking something illegal, and somebody's turned the amp up to 10 on the other side of the screen door.
"[2] Welles has opened for such rock bands including Dead Sara,[13] Greta Van Fleet,[14] Rival Sons,[15] and Royal Blood.
[7] In 2024, under the name Jesse Welles, he garnered attention on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for his folk protest songs about topics including capitalism, microplastics and the fentanyl crisis in the United States.