Folker is Paul Westerberg

Paul Westerberg

Paul Westerberg is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band...

's sixth solo album. It peaked at number 178 on the Billboard 200

Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

 and number 18 on the Top Independent Album charts.

Folker marks the final chapter in a trilogy of albums for the previous leader of The Replacements, which started back in 2002 with the release of the double album Stereo/Mono. Much like that set, Folker was entirely written, produced and recorded by Westerberg in his basement studio, with the recording kept as simple and lo-fi as possible. Westerberg has stated in interviews that he wanted to create a folk album in the vein of Rod Stewart's earliest solo work, consisting of an acoustic base with minimal instrumentation layered on top of the tracks.

Westerberg shopped "Jingle" around to major retailers like Target

Target Corporation

Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...

 and Best Buy

Best Buy

Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...

for use in advertising, but they passed.

Track listing

All songs by Paul Westerberg.

1. "Jingle" – 1:28
2. "Now I Wonder" – 4:35
3. "My Dad" – 3:28
4. "Lookin' Up in Heaven" – 3:12
5. "Anyway's All Right" – 4:41
6. "$100 Groom" – 5:15
7. "23 Years Ago" – 5:35
8. "As Far as I Know" – 3:03
9. "What About Mine?" – 3:43
10. "How Can You Like Him?" – 4:04
11. "Breathe Some New Life" – 5:30
12. "Gun Shy" – 3:14
13. "Folk Star" – 4:17