www.nctimes.com
by Charles Hand
Lukas Nelson’s hero may be a guy he hung around with a lot when he was younger —- a country singer named Willie —- but you won’t find the guitarist/vocalist/band leader son copying his famous father and country music legend.
The younger Nelson, who will perform Saturday at the Wiens Family Cellars with his year-and-a-half-old band Promise of the Real, does not sound like his dad’s music, but he can replicate his style with uncanny accuracy when he decides to.
“I grew up listening to him sing,” Nelson said. “I just can’t help getting the phrasing from him, but I just try to sing what’s comfortable.”
The 21-year-old Nelson began traveling with his father when he was five weeks old and joined the elite company aboard the Honeysuckle Rose (Nelson’s tour bus) with the Highwaymen, Willie, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.
By the time he was 13 or 14 years old, Nelson was playing in his dad’s band. He got hooked on the travel and the entertaining.
During the 11 or so years he lived with his mother in Maui, he spent more time thinking about being on the road than he spent appreciating the natural beauty around him, he says now.
When it came time for college, he moved to the mainland to attend Loyola Marymount, but made it only about a year and a half before abandoning classes to form a band.
That was in 2007 and Nelson said the band already covers its expenses and provides and living.
“We don’t live lavishly,” he said, but he and a girlfriend live well enough in Venice Beach.
He alaso does not take money from either of his parents, he said.
“We’re self-sufficient,” he said.
He chose a seaside town for the way he feels when he is around the ocean.
“There is so much power that comes from it that’s soothing to me,” he says, a feeling lost on him on Maui.
In fact, he played guitar in his room eight to 10 hours a day on Maui.
“I didn’t even surf that much,” he said. “I had this feeling I needed to be somewhere else. It caused a lot of anxiety in me.”
He did some experimenting with drugs, but did not get hooked and didn’t do alcohol at all. He gained strength from reading books about finding happiness where you were no matter where you were. But they did not entirely succeed either.
Finally, he made the move to the mainland and a new seaside community, where much that had escaped him on Maui comes into focus for him daily —- when he isn’t on the road.
This summer is devoted to a string of concerts around the country from Pennsylvania to Indiana to Washington, to Wyoming to Utah to California. And the band has a new CD to replace the five-song EP they produced for their concert tour.
Nelson, who comes across as sincere about everything from his music to his family to his choice of career, is convinced it is the best work the band has done. It was produced by sometime-band member and all-time producer John Avila, former bassist with Oingo Boingo.
“This is the best thing we’ve ever done,” Nelson said. “When we recorded the EP, we had just formed. We have a year and a half of experience we didn’t have then.”
For someone who grew up with a guitar-playing father, Nelson came to the instrument, in fact to music, kind of late.
He was 8 years old when he asked his dad what he wanted for his birthday and the elder Nelson replied, “Nothing. Maybe if you learned to play the guitar.”
He started immediately and has not quit since. He fiddled with the violin, too, but never got anywhere with it, has played some drums, and keeps himself current enough on piano that he can jump in when necessary for a recording.
But his instrument is the guitar. On stage he often breaks into a jam or a long solo. In an homage to Jimi Hendrix, one of his favorite guitarists, has learned to play some with his teeth.
The music of Santana and Bob Dylan have also played major roles in his life, and Dylan has even invited him to play with his own band.
“Unfortunately, I had to turn that down,” Nelson said, “but I sit in when I can.”
Following a famous dad into show business has not been a trial, said Nelson. In fact, “it has opened some doors.”
Indeed. His band has opened for his father, for B.B. King, the Dave Matthews Band and others.
On the other hand, said Nelson, his band is making it on its own and the music he writes and performs is his own.
That does not mean the EP doesn’t have a cut in which the younger Nelson consciously emulates his father’s style on “Georgia,” a cut from his “Stardust” album, which the younger Nelson considers one of the best albums recorded by anyone.
“I learned how from him,” Nelson said. “He’s been a great mentor to me.”
The other members of the band are drummer Anthony LoGerfo, who has toured with Gwen Stefani, UB40 and Jackson Browne, among others; Corey McCormick on bass and Tato Melgar on percussion.
Also appearing on the bill are the country group Austin Law, formed by a San Bernardino County deputy sheriff, and Artwork Jamal, twice named male vocalist of the year by the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame.
Rockin’ Blues & Country Festival
7:30 p.m. Aug. 7
Wines Family Cellars
35055 Via del Ponte, Temecula
$40, $75 VIP
goldencrownproductions.com
Read the entire article: North Country Times
