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Archive for the ‘Micah Nelson’ Category
See the Particle Kid and Flaming Lips at Luck (10/1/22)
Monday, September 12th, 2022Happy Father’s Day, Willie Nelson
Sunday, June 19th, 2022
Willie Nelson and Particle Kid (aka Micah Nelson) duet and Outlaw Music Festival Tour
Thursday, June 16th, 2022Particle Kid, aka Micah Nelson, and his legendary father Willie Nelson duet on a new single, “Die When I’m High (Halfway To Heaven)”. The duo shared a video today via Rolling Stone, prior to the track dropping via all DSPs tomorrow – pre-save here.
Particle Kid and Willie Nelson will hit the road starting next week as part of the Outlaw Music Festival, across the U.S. thru September [all dates below]. A limited-edition, wood carved single of “Die When I’m High (Halfway To Heaven)” will be available exclusively at the dates.
Discussing the creative spark behind the track, Micah offered, “Sometime back in December 2020, in between endless rounds of chess and dominos, my dad looked up at me and said, ‘If I die when I’m high I’ll be halfway to heaven’. It took me a second to process, but I said , ‘Dad, that’s the best song title I ever heard. You better write the rest of it quick.’ He said. ‘Why don’t you write it?’ So I did. That night I wrote it for him, about him. It’s really just a love letter to him. A tribute.
“At the same time I realized it’s also a sort of ‘fuck you’ to anyone who ever thought of me as some lost prodigal son who doesn’t understand him or respect his legacy just because I’ve never imitated his style or pandered to his audience. HE is the one who gave me my Particle Kid moniker after all.
“We are both freaks, in our time. I’m no prodigal son. I am HIS Particle Kid. I would never try to be him, or even pretend, because nobody will ever be him. But believe it or not I do relate to the Willie fans because I am one of them. They know how incredible and one of a kind he is. So this song is for the real Willie fans too. They get it.
“I cut the video together using a combination of time-lapse footage I shot at Luck, concert footage of me and my dad performing the song live, and some animated portraits I created digitally of him at different times in his life.”
Micah Nelson released his experimental, psychedelic, future-folk magnum opus, TIME CAPSULE, under his Particle Kid moniker in April. A 26-song musical journey through time, space and consciousness.
Available digitally, on compact disc and inside a limited edition hempcrete time capsule, forged by Micah himself.
TIME CAPSULE takes listeners on a trip through various genres, ideas and sounds – an eclectic palette of sonic colors, both familiar and exploratory. Feelings painted together like a collage, as if 90s alt, 60s psych, 70s electric jazz, and some abstract future were all magazines — chopped up and somehow cohesively glued together by Micah’s voice and lyrics.
Stream + Purchase TIME CAPSULE here.
Outlaw Music Festival Dates:
06/24 – St. Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
06/25 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
07/01 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP
07/02 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
07/04 – Austin, TX @ Q2 Stadium
07/29 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center
07/30 – Cincinnati, OH @ River Bend Center
08/12 – Gilford, NH @ Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
08/13 – Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center
08/14 – Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
09/09 – Atlanta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
09/10 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
09/11 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
09/13 – Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater
09/16 – Boston, MA @ Xfinity Center
09/17 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
www.particlekid.com
Willie Nelson, still rocking guitar solos, at 88
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022Particle Kid, “Amerikan Lyfe”, with Willie Nelson
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022
Released on: 2022-03-22
Main Artist: Particle Kid Featured Artist: Willie Nelson Author: Jacob Micah Nelson
Released on: 2022-03-22 Main Artist: Particle Kid Featured Artist: Willie Nelson Author: Jacob Micah Nelson
Particle Kid
New @particlekid video/single “AMERIKAN LYFE” featuring Willie Nelson is out today. The song is from the upcoming Particle Kit project TIME CAPSULE.
@overseasartists @strangeloopstudios #spitballpictures
New Music from the Particle Kid – Micah Nelson
Wednesday, January 12th, 2022| Particle Kid, aka Micah Nelson’s experimental, psychedelic, future-folk project, returns today with “Someone Else’s Dream,” feat. J Mascis, Sunny War + Paul Bushnell, to announce their third full-length, double-album, Time Capsule, for an April 22 release. Watch the video via FLOOD or share via YouTube. Pre-order TIME CAPSULE here. The album will be available digitally and on CD along with a limited run of 20 actual time capsules, hand-crafted from hempcrete (a fire-resistant, highly insulative building material made from hemp stalks) by Micah. Inside each one will be a thumb drive including the record, videos, printed album artwork, industrial hemp seeds that he cultivated himself, and a physical ticket to a Particle Kid concert in 20 years. Then people can fill the time capsule with their own mementos and reconnect with it decades from now. “It feels like we are experiencing a major plot point in history for better or worse, and the idea of collaging all this music into a literal time capsule was interesting,” he says. “It’s like an interactive art piece.” Following the November release of the single “Velocirapture (The Serpent Flew),” feat. Sean Ono Lennon, which led Rolling Stone to note, “Micah Nelson and Sean Ono Lennon speak the same language: psychedelic, experimental, exploratory, and just a little unhinged,” “Someone Else’s Dream” captures Nelson in a flash of inspiration. |
| “I met J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. in Amsterdam when I played there at the Ziggodome with Neil Young + Promise of the Real. We have been occasional pen pals ever since and he was nice enough to play some electric guitar on the track, which was very cool because Dinosaur Jr. is one of my all-time favorite bands, and has influenced many of my sounds, especially on Time Capsule.” Time Capsule takes listeners on a trip through various genres, ideas and sounds – an eclectic palette of sonic colors, both familiar and exploratory. Feelings painted together like a collage, as if 90s alt, 60s psych, 70s electric jazz, and some abstract future were all magazines — chopped up and somehow cohesively glued together by Micah’s voice and lyrics. Micah is joined throughout the record by a series of guests, from the aforementioned Sean Ono Lennon and J Mascis, to Margo Price, Jim James, and his dad Willie Nelson, amongst others [track list below]. Particle Kid will head back out on the road with The Flaming Lips in support of Time Capsule across the Western United States, April – May [all dates below]. |
 Particle Kid’s Time Capsule album art |
| Time Capsule Track List: 01. “123 skip into infinity” 02. “Time Capsule Theme – The Now Is Wow” 03. “Velocirapture (The Serpent Flew)” feat. Sean Ono Lennon + Mickey Raphael 04. “Cassette I – Time Simulation Malfunctioning” 05. “Original Glitch” feat. Moskito06. “Time Capsule Theme II” 07. “Someone Else’s Dream” feat. J Mascis, Sunny War + Paul Bushnell 08. “The Hole Time” 09. “All One Day – Shadow of the Sun” feat. Willie Nelson + Jim James 10. “Along The Timey Road” 11. “Thurxzday” 12. “King of Ashes” 13. “Rumplestiltskin” feat. Nikitia Sorokin 14. “Time Capsule Theme III – Break Free From The Loop” 15. “Mycorrhiphone” 16. “Cassette II” 17. “WTF – No Somebody” feat. The Lovely Eggs + Raman Steve 18. “Smart People” 19. “Love is Worth” feat. Margo Price, Jeremy Ivey + Eric Sullivan 20. “Cassette III – The Panda” feat. The Nerfs 21. “Little Fish – Deep Pond” 22. “The Pages” 23. “Algorythm” feat. Dave Ralicke 24. “Time Capsule – Little Sting” 25. “Don’t Try” 26. “Amerikan Lyfe” feat. Willie Nelson Tour Dates: 04/10 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre 04/25 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom 04/28 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory 04/29 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom 04/30 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory 05/02 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom 05/03 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom 05/04 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo 05/06 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield 05/07 – San, Francisco, CA @ The Warfield 05/09 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern * all dates supporting Flaming Lips Connect with Particle Kid:www.particlekid.comwww.instagram.com/particlekid |
Willie and his boys
Sunday, December 26th, 2021
Willie’s Reserve
Sunday, December 12th, 2021
New Willie Nelson Family Album
Monday, September 27th, 2021
www.bestclassicbands.com
Willie Nelson’s latest studio album, The Willie Nelson Family, has been announced and as its name implies it’s a family affair. The CD arrives November 19, 2021 on Legacy Recordings. The new album includes compositions written by Hank Williams (“I Saw the Light”), Kris Kristofferson (“Why Me”) and George Harrison (“All Things Must Pass”).
Musicians on The Willie Nelson Family are: Willie Nelson (lead vocals, background vocals, Trigger); Bobbie Nelson (piano); Lukas Nelson (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lead vocals, background vocals); Micah Nelson (drums, bass, background vocals); Paula Nelson (background vocals); Amy Nelson (background vocals); Mickey Raphael (harmonica); Billy English (drums); Paul English (percussion) and Kevin Smith (bass).
A first single, a new recording of “Family Bible,” was released on Sept. 23, the day of the announcement. One of Nelson’s earliest compositions, the song was penned in 1957, inspired by scenes of Willie’s grandmother singing “Rock of Ages” and reading from the Bible after supper. A struggling young songwriter moving to Houston, Willie sold the song to Paul Buskirk, who enlisted singer Claude Gray to record Nelson’s original songs (including “Family Bible” and “Night Life”). Gray’s single version of “Family Bible” was released in February 1960 and reached #7 on Billboard‘s Hot Country Singles chart. The single’s success enabled Willie to move to Nashville, where he established his reputation as a songwriter. Willie recorded his own version of “Family Bible” for the first time in 1971, and the song has been a staple in his live performances.
Willie’s son Lukas (who fronts his own band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real) sings lead vocals on two of the album’s tracks–“All Things Must Pass” and A.P. Carter’s “Keep It on the Sunnyside”–while sharing lead vocals with Willie on “I Saw the Light,” “I Thought About You, Lord” and “Why Me.”
Four of the performances on The Willie Nelson Family–“Heaven and Hell,” “Kneel at the Feet of Jesus,” “Laying My Burdens Down” and “Family Bible”–are among the last recordings Willie made with his longtime drummer and pal Paul English. Paul and Willie first played together in Fort Worth in 1955; Paul became Willie’s regular drummer in 1966 and an essential member of the Family until he passed away, at age 87, on Feb. 11, 2020.
Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson and Chris Barton have co-authored Sister, Brother, Family: An American Childhood in Music, a children’s picture book illustrated by Kyung Eun Han available in hardcover Nov. 9.
Nelson’s most recent album was That’s Life, a second collection of standards from the Frank Sinatra repertoire, released Feb. 26, 2021, It debuted at #1 on both Billboard‘s Jazz Albums chart and the Traditional Jazz Albums chart.
The Willie Nelson Family Track Listing
1. Heaven and Hell (Willie Nelson)
2. Kneel at the Feet of Jesus (Willie Nelson)
3. Laying My Burdens Down (Willie Nelson)
4. Family Bible (Claude Gray, Paul Buskirk & Walt Breeland)
5. In the Garden (traditional)
6. All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)
7. I Saw the Light (Hank Williams, Sr.)
8. In God’s Eyes (Willie Nelson)
9. Keep It On the Sunnyside (A.P. Carter)
10. I Thought About You, Lord (Willie Nelson)
11. Too Sick To Pray (Willie Nelson)
12. Why Me (Kris Kristofferson)
Nelson turned 88 last April 29. Tickets to see him perform are available here.
The Willie Nelson Family Album
Friday, September 24th, 2021Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release The Willie Nelson Family–Willie Nelson’s new studio album (and 16th for the label)–on Friday, November 19.
The Willie Nelson Family will be available on CD and digital formats. Pre-order here.
The Willie Nelson Family Album Track List:
1. Heaven and Hell (Willie Nelson)
2. Kneel at the Feet of Jesus (Willie Nelson)
3. Laying My Burdens Down (Willie Nelson)
4. Family Bible (Claude Gray, Paul Buskirk & Walt Breeland)
5. In the Garden (traditional)
6. All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)
7. I Saw the Light (Hank Williams, Sr.)
8. In God’s Eyes (Willie Nelson)
9. Keep It On the Sunnyside (A.P. Carter)
10. I Thought About You, Lord (Willie Nelson)
11. Too Sick To Pray (Willie Nelson)
12. Why Me (Kris Kristofferson)
Shaped around a setlist of 12 favorite spirit-driven songs from the Nelson Family repertoire, The Willie Nelson Family draws on deep Americana (including A.P. Carter’s “Keep It On The Sunnyside” and the traditional hymn “In The Garden”) while celebrating classic songwriting from Hank Williams (“I Saw The Light”) and Kris Kristofferson (“Why Me”) to George Harrison (“All Things Must Pass”) and Willie Nelson (who penned half of the album’s compositions).
Produced by Willie Nelson and Steve Chadie, The Willie Nelson Family was recorded and mixed by Chadie at Pedernales Studios in Austin, Texas.
Musicians on The Willie Nelson Family are: Willie Nelson (lead vocals, background vocals, Trigger); Bobbie Nelson (piano); Lukas Nelson (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lead vocals, background vocals); Micah Nelson (drums, bass, background vocals); Paula Nelson (background vocals); Amy Nelson (background vocals); Mickey Raphael (harmonica); Billy English (drums); Paul English (percussion) and Kevin Smith (bass).
Willie’s son Lukas (who fronts his own band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real) sings lead vocals on two of the album’s tracks–“All Things Must Pass” and “Keep It On The Sunnyside”–while sharing lead vocals with Willie on “I Saw the Light,” “I Thought About You, Lord” and “Why Me.”
Four of the performances on The Willie Nelson Family–“Heaven and Hell,” “Kneel at the Feet of Jesus,” “Laying My Burdens Down” and “Family Bible”–are among the last recordings Willie made with his longtime drummer and pal Paul English. Paul and Willie first played together in Fort Worth in 1955; Paul became Willie’s regular drummer in 1966 and an essential member of the Family until he passed away, at age 87, on February 11, 2020.
Willie Nelson & Family in Saratoga Springs, MD (9.12.21)
Monday, September 13th, 2021
Thank you, Carol Sidoran, for sharing your great photos from the Outlaw Music Festival in Saratoga Springs, MD last night.
Willie Nelson and Family, Outlaw Music Festival in Philadelphia (9.11.21)
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photo: Charles Fox
www.inquirer.com
by: Dan DeLuca
The lineup for the Outlaw Music Festival tour at the Mann Center on Saturday was formidable.
The make-sure-you-get-there-early opener was Nashville songwriter Margo Price, finally out on the road again to spread the word about last year’s exemplary That’s How Rumors Get Started.
Price was followed first by guitarist Warren Haynes’ Southern rock band Gov’t Mule, and then by full-of-surprises country tough guy Sturgill Simpson, backed by a dazzling band of bluegrass musicians.
And, oh yeah, the last act to hit the stage: some guy named Willie Nelson.
Fans could be forgiven for tempering expectations for Nelson’s closing set. Sure, the “Red Headed Stranger” is the essential embodiment of the Outlaw brand, dating to when he and Waylon Jennings flipped the bird to Nashville and planted a nonconformist flag in Texas in the 1970s.
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But on Saturday night at the nearly sold-out Mann — where proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test was required for entry, and mask compliance was better than at last week’s Made In America festival — Nelson was allotted only an hour of stage time, 15 minutes less than both Simpson and Gov’t Mule. Touring with his Family band, he was seated with pianist sister, Bobbi, on his right and guitarist son, Micah, on his left.
Micah eased the load for his father by taking lead vocals on four songs, including the country gospel standard “Keep on the Sunnyside” and the brand new “If I Die When I’m High I’ll Be Halfway to Heaven,” which Micah said he wrote after his father suggested the title.
Opening as always with “Whiskey River,” as an American flag backdrop was revealed — replacing an Outlaw tableau featuring a tour bus trailed by clouds of smoke disappearing into a tree — Willie took a little while to warm up.
He set the mood with the Zen koan “Still Is Still Moving to Me,” then eased into wistful, melancholy standards, some of which he wrote himself, such as “Crazy” and “Night Life,” and others, such as “Always on My Mind,” that he has made so indelible you just assume he wrote them.
Like an aging athlete finding his footing, Nelson got stronger as the show went on, his vocals more robust, the gypsy-jazz leads he squeezed out of his acoustic guitar Trigger friskier. The pairing of Hoagy Carmichael’s (by way of Ray Charles) “Georgia on My Mind” and Billy Jo Shaver’s “Georgia on a Fast Train” was particularly winning.
And by the time the encores rolled around, with all the evening’s featured performers joining him for the country gospel sing-alongs on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “I’ll Fly Away,” Nelson was commanding the stage from his seated position.
So much so that he decided to throw Mac Davis’ mock boastful “It’s Hard to Be Humble” as a closer on what was an evening of 5½ hours of performances. “To know me is to love me,” Nelson sang playfully. Indeed it is, and all the more so now, considering how vital and indomitable of an artist he remains at age 88.
Willie Nelson & sons
Thursday, July 22nd, 2021
photo: Janis Tillerson
Particle Kid Micah Nelson to tour with The Flaming Lips
Monday, June 21st, 2021(Los Angeles) – Particle Kid (Los Angeles-based composer/multi-media artist Micah Nelson)is excited to announce that he will join Grammy Award-winning The Flaming Lips on their U.S. tour in autumn 2021 and spring 2022.
Tickets are on sale now. Click here for more info or visit the venue links below.
The Flaming Lips, the Oklahoma City psychedelic rock band whose Space Bubble Concerts got a lot of attention during lockdown, have invited Particle Kid to be the very special guest on their highly anticipated U.S. tour this fall and next spring. Particle Kid, which is Micah Nelson and a rotation of musicians he enlists, and The Flaming Lips have already collaborated in various ways.
Nelson was a featured musician on The Flaming Lips’ 2020 album, American Head, adding guitar and vocals to the band’s life-affirming and imaginative sound.
Lips fans likely saw Particle Kid in April 2021 on Jimmy Kimmel Live, when he joined the band to perform “Will You Return/When You Come Down” from American Head. Watch the performance here.
In 2019, The Aspen Times wrote about Particle Kid’s opening set for The Flaming Lips: “He set the tone at the outset with a jarring dose of extended feedback, emerging from the haze of noise with ‘Myssus Crow’-from his 2017 album, Everything Is Bullshit-which juxtaposes jangly guitars and sweet bubblegum-pop vocals with harsh and brutal passages of distorted guitar…
There’s a playful Frank Zappa spirit in Particle Kid’s arty rock and a refreshing indifference to the pop trends of the moment. His mercurial guitar-based sound, with touches of folk and punches of distortion, is occasionally punctuated with glitchy electronic samples.”
Born into a highly creative and prolific family, Micah Nelson is comfortable on the world stage, having toured and/or collaborated with everyone from Neil Young and Tinariwen to John Doe and Willie Nelson (Micah’s father, who also coined the Particle Kid moniker).
Micah began creating animation and videos as a child, attended art school and currently has a production entity called Spitball Pictures, which produces music videos for his own projects, as well as those by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (“Tripwire” and “My Power”), folk-punk musician Sunny War (“Age of a Man”), Tinariwen (“Wartilla, Dan Caret Dub”), and ukulele and guitar duo Folk Uke (“Small One”).
Micah is currently working with Neil Young on an animated short film adaptation of Young’s 1982 dystopian sci-fi concept album, TRANS. He is also a member of his brother’s band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, a member of Neil Young’s band, touring and recording with Young and being part of his full-length film Paradox.
Particle Kid has headlined shows around the world and opened for The Flaming Lips, Tinariwen, Meat Puppets, Margo Price, and Sheryl Crow, and played at festivals such as Luck Reunion, UTOPiAfest and the Outlaw Music Festival. In an article titled “The Trippy Troubadour,” Rolling Stone called Micah Nelson a “musical polymath who, according to Willie, ‘plays everything,’ combining an indie DIY aesthetic with a questing hippie spirit and a relentless work ethic.”
Micah told Rolling Stonethat playing music with Neil Young has been like “getting a master’s degree in Jedi training.” Nelson calls Particle Kid his “experimental future-folk solo project,” and has released five albums of original music since 2012 and is preparing new material for an upcoming release, some of which will likely be part of his opening set list.
In addition to performing an opening set at these shows, it’s likely that Particle Kid will join The Flaming Lips onstage during this tour.
THE FLAMING LIPS + PARTICLE KID on Tour 2021/2022:
2021:
Sun Nov 07 The Fillmore Philadelphia, PA
Mon Nov 08 Brooklyn Steel Brooklyn, NY
Tue Nov 09 Brooklyn Steel Brooklyn, NY
Thu Nov 11 Stage A&E Pittsburgh, PA
Fri Nov 12 Crouse Hinds Theater Syracuse, NY
Sat Nov 13 Palace Theater Albany, NY
Mon Nov 15 House of Blues Boston, MA
Tue Nov 16 The Anthem Washington, DCThu Nov 18 MTELUS Montreal, QC
Sat Nov 20 Royal Oak Music Theater Royal Oak, MI
2022:
Mon Apr 25 Mission Ballroom Denver, CO
Thu Apr 28 Knitting Factory Boise, ID
Fri Apr 29 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
Sat Apr 30 Knitting Factory Spokane, WAMon May 02 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
Tue May 03 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
Wed May 04 Showbox SoDo Seattle, WA
Fri May 06 Warfield Theatre San Francisco, CA
Sat May 07 Warfield Theatre San Francisco, CA
Mon May 09 The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA
Click here for additional ticket information.