Lukas Nelson Offers Sense of Hope on New Album

When I liken watching country music icon Willie Nelson perform in his 90s to watching LeBron James play ball in his late 30s/early 40s, his son, singer-songwriter Lukas Nelson, admits the metaphor makes sense when it comes to describing the way his father has aged gracefully.

“[My father] has still got his game and always will,” he says via phone from a Dallas tour stop as he sips a freshly brewed cup of Joe. “He’ll never lose that simply because it’s so ingrained in him.”

Lukas Nelson, who started writing songs of his own at age 11, upholds his father’s legacy in more ways than one. He’s subbed for his father when he’s taken breaks from his traveling Outlaw music festival, and he’s released music both with his band, Promise of the Real, and with the current group of musicians he calls Spread Eagle.

Lukas Nelson is touring behind a new album, American Romance, and performs at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at Globe Iron.

The new configuration of musicians backing him represents a change from Promise of the Real. While Nelson always wrote all the music, he now has a bigger band and more autonomy.

“It’s just different,” he says when asked about “going solo.” “It’s a matter of the personnel. There is more freedom on my part to play the songs I want to play and do what I want to do. It’s always been Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real, and now, it’s just Lukas Nelson. I had to share some of the guys with Neil Young, and there are other reasons why it ran its course.”

He says even played Promise of the Real songs at recent shows in Austin.

The songs on his new album compare favorably to the alt-country approach Nelson has taken in the past. And one of the new tracks, “You Were It,” actually dates back decades. Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson heard the tune when Nelson first wrote it and encouraged him to write more. It fits with the album’s overall theme. As the album title suggests, the songs are about the ups and downs of romance.

“There’s a romanticism in the destitute, and there’s a romanticism in the exalted,” says Nelson. “[The album] is just the story of my upbringing in this [country]. It’s the dark times, and the light. And, look, we all live here together. We have to share this place. Giving people hope is more important than being right.”

One of the things that helped Nelson through dark times was the George Harrrison tune “All Things Must Pass.” Nelson cites the song as an inspiration for his approach on this album.

“I went through a dark place when I was in high school,” Nelson says. “I had an intense moment which was a very adult situation, and I was very confused. I was wandering through a cow pasture in Maui with some friends and grabbed a handful of mushrooms and ate them. That took me down through the dark night of my soul if you will. I had about a month and a half of really deep anxiety that almost became like a nervous breakdown or panic attack. Through it all, that song kept me here. The way of the universe and God’s creation is if you wait, things will change. Things weren’t that great right then, so I waited, and I got out of it. That’s a good lesson for me and what ‘God Ain’t Done’ is for me.”

Nelson went to Los Angeles and recorded with singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings, who reached out to him about working together.

“It was great,” says Nelson. “We worked at Sound City in L.A. It has a lot of history, and he’s putting out all the [singer-songwriter] Waylon [Jennings] stuff.”

One album highlight, “Disappearing Light,” finds Nelson working with alt-country singer-songwriter Steven Wilson Jr. The result is a beautiful ballad that showcases both their voices. Country star Anderson East produced the track.

Rising country singer-songwriter Sierra Ferrell provides another album highlight as she shares vocals on “Friend in the End.”

“I got lucky working with her,” says Nelson. “I’ve been lucky enough to meet some incredible musicians. I recognize talent when I see it. Sierra has as much talent as anyone I’ve ever met.”

As much as Nelson is now a solo act, he says he enjoys coming up with nicknames for the musicians playing with him and giving the group different bands.

“We were the Shadow Banned — which has cool meanings since people talk about my dad’s shadow all the time — and now, we’re the Spread Eagles,” he says. “It might even be a different band name for every show.”