Lukas Nelson is an old soul. He prefers that people buy physical albums because he believes in the record as a whole piece of art. He writes songs with lyrics like “It all comes clear when you lose the years/ Don’t make the same mistake I made when I was your age.” He takes tips from guys like Neil Young. And he’s already had a near-death experience after a long night of partying that has him “cutting back” at the ripe old age of 23.
He’s got a gentle drawl on the phone that reflects his split upbringing between Texas and Hawaii: a little of that Southern charm and a touch of that laid-back ocean attitude. It’s all wrapped up in a fit figure that surfs offstage and jumps around like a maniac on it (sometimes barefoot). He’s grown his hair long and trimmed it short, but either way, he’s still got a youthful face with old eyes, perhaps inherited from the time he spends with a certain legend he also calls Dad: Willie Nelson.
Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real will bring it all to the Auburn Public Theater, 8 Exchange St., Auburn, on Friday, Aug. 31, 8 p.m. Singer, songwriter and guitarist Carl Anderson is the opener. Tickets are $25; call 253-6669 for details.
“When I was 12 I asked my father what he wanted for his birthday and he said he wanted me to learn the guitar,” the young Nelson explains before embarking on a round of golf in Hawaii. “So I learned guitar.” But he didn’t start his education with a three-chord typical tune. He started out with virtuoso Gypsy jazz guitarist and composer, Django Reinhardt.
Being the son of a music icon didn’t hurt, either. “He was teaching me chords and things,” Lukas Nelson says of his uber-famous father. “He taught me that first and I thought, ‘Well, if I can learn this, I can learn anything.’”
Although he had started playing with the intention of finding something to bring him and his father closer together, music quickly became something bigger. “I just fell in love with it,” he says. He went to school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, but only stayed for about a year and a half. “I studied music there and dropped out and then started my journey,” he says simply.
He began meeting his future bandmates—drummer Anthony LoGerfo, percussionist Tato Melgar and bassist Corey McCormick—and recalls first spending time with LoGerfo at a Neil Young concert in Los Angeles. After the show, he joined LoGerfo to go midnight surfing “with a bunch of his buds,” but Nelson ended up getting stung by a stingray. “Kind of an interesting story,” he says with a laugh.
The group started as Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real in early 2008, the name coming from a Neil Young lyric in “Walk On.” “The line is, ‘Some get stoned/ Some get strange/ But sooner or later/ It all gets real,’” Nelson says. “And so, we’re Promise of the Real. And it’s a mantra for the band, you know? Every time we look at it, it reminds us to stay real, keep our integrity.”
The band seems to stick to that, both live and on their two records, 2010’s Promise of the Real (POTR Music) and last April’s Wasted (Tone Tide Records). There’s no pretentiousness on stage, no name-dropping of famous fathers, no glitz and glam. But that’s not to say it’s boring. Nelson has been known to throw out stunts, such as jumping a few feet high before slamming the last note and occasionally playing a few riffs with his teeth.
For the most part, however, he’s fascinating to watch because he is so completely engulfed by the music, often closing his eyes and swinging his head to the powerful licks and thoughtful lyrics. He’s feeling it. And it’s real.
Although his voice is on the same page as his father’s, marked by that familiar twang (especially noticeable when the two duet on Willie’s 2012 Sony-Legacy album Heroes), his guitar-playing is from a whole different book. Wild, loud and ferocious, the young Nelson is a rowdy rocker. But he’s got his sensitive spots, too, something his latest album reflects.
Wasted was written while Nelson was on the road and just after he had read Keith Richards’ autobiography Life (2010, Hachette Book Group, Inc.). As he soaked in lessons from the excesses of Richards’ life, he faced similar temptations within his own.
“When I was in it, I didn’t know as much, until I was out,” he says. “The main thing was that I took pills and I had never done that before. I just took pills one night when I was drinking and I almost died. It wasn’t necessarily the drinking that did it, it was the decision that I made while I was under the influence that did it. That taught me that I needed to cut back a little bit and I did. And now I feel like I’m in a good, Zen kinda place.”
Nelson’s songs reflect lessons learned and the painful experiences that often accompany life-changing mistakes. In “Running Away” he sings, “I need to stop running away from the people I love/ I need to start looking for people who love me the same/ And the love that I live for is one I can’t let slide away/ I need you to remember the love that you gave me today.”
Although digging up past mistakes by singing about them 240 times a year (that’s about how many shows Nelson logs annually) might seem just as painful as reliving them, it’s become more of a therapeutic exercise for the young singer-songwriter. “{Writing and performing them} is like putting them in a big bubble and letting them go,” he says. “Every time I put something in a song, I can let it go.”
After Nelson put the songs in their bubbles on paper, he and the band blew them away at Moose Lodge Studios in Nashville. At the suggestion of Neil Young, the outfit also recorded, mixed, mastered and even released the album during full moons. “Neil always tries to record on a full moon to utilize the magnetism and the energy,” Nelson says, “and it really works.”
He also threw in a wide range of instruments to add depth to the already thick sound of the band, including Wurlitzer, Hammond B3 organ, Dobro and lap steel guitar. “I plan to make the best music possible and that means using whatever colors in the palette that I can possibly have access to,” he explains. “I consider a new instrument a new color in the painting.”
Already Nelson has conquered stages on late-night TV shows with David Letterman, Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel, as well as mega-event stages including Farm Aid, Bridge School, Stage Coach and the nearby Hunter Mountain-hosted Mountain Jam curated by Warren Haynes. “We got to jam together and we had fun,” Nelson says of Haynes. “He’s a real nice guy and we really loved it. I’m actually with one of Warren’s friends, Paul. We’re gonna play golf in a minute.”
Before Nelson takes off to enjoy his short vacation time, he ends the interview as genuinely as he began it. He might be the son of a world-renown musician, but he remembers his manners. “Thank you! I really appreciate the interview,” he says with audible sincerity. “Anytime you need me, just give me a call.”Youtube
