As it turns out, she told The Daily Times recently, “black sheep” is a relative term.
“I think, in a way, we all kind of feel like we’re the black sheep of our family, but I do feel that way,” said Nelson, who brings her band to The Shed Smokehouse and Juke Joint in Maryville on Friday. “My mom’s side is extremely conservative, my dad’s side is extremely liberal, and I’m kind of in the middle, where I’m not extreme either way. I’ve fought that battle my whole life.”
It’s one of many battles she’s had to fight — after all, with the Nelson surname and a legacy of making music casting large shadows, she’s had to scrap and claw to stake out a claim as her own woman. Not that her famous grandfather has put any expectations on her, she said; if anything, he’s been a kind and gentle guiding force as far back as she can remember.
“My earliest musical memories? My dad (Willie Hugh Nelson Jr., who died in 1991) and my grandpa singing ‘Jingle Bells’ to me,” she said. “I remember them singing to me, and my dad playing guitar to me. I remember going to Papa Willie’s shows and them being crazy, just tons of people there and it taking a long time to get to him.”
Her parents separated when she was 3; her mother kept her a safe distance from the wild ways of the Nelson clan, but the sounds of her grandfather and his peers had a way of sneaking around the barriers her mother erected. She cut her teeth on artists like Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Amy Grant; as a teenager, she discovered pop, R&B and rock, and when she met Jonathan “J.B.” Bright — the musical backbone of the Raelyn Nelson Band and her partner in music — her world got a whole lot bigger, she said.
“He opened me up to the world of The Clash and the Ramones, and he was playing in a band called Defense Wins Championships at the time, which was real hard, loud rock music,” she said. “When I told him I was looking for a place to record
my own music, he told me to come over and record at his place. When I got over there, he asked if I wanted to write songs and put together a combo, and I said yes immediately. All of our music is a hybrid of my country and him adding his rock influence into it. We do everything together — videos, songwriting, websites, social media. He’s a true part of the Raelyn Nelson Band.”
She had come into her own several years earlier; discovering Shania Twain lit a fire in her, she said, and when she reached out to her grandfather at 14, asking if she could have one of his old guitars, he sent her a Martin. She started writing songs on it (and still owns it today), but while working with Bright, she found a ukulele that he had used to make an album of Replacements covers. While Bright was in the engineer’s chair, she started playing it; Bright taught her chords, and she decided to play ukulele instead.
“It’s a lot of fun to play, and it’s easy to swing around and perform on stage with it,” she said.
In 2014, the Raelyn Nelson Band released a debut EP; it’s a rough-around-the-edges record, and rightly so, she pointed out; she and the boys were still figuring out their sound. But the potential for what the group would become is there, in Nelson’s vocals, which burn hot as a Texas wildfire, and Bright’s deft rock ‘n’ roll licks. They’ve released a number of singles over the past couple of years and hope to eventually put out a new EP, she said.
“With the new stuff, I think we kind of honed in on the sound, because it has that cowpunk feel to it” she said.
One of the new songs is a striking change from the honky-tonk punk party — think Chrissie Hynde fronting the Old 97’s — that’s so prevalent throughout the band’s repertoire: “Daddy’s Grave” is a big, bold ballad of heartache and loss. It’s not a typical Raelyn Nelson song, but it proves she has the gravitas to be as serious as she can be fun.
“I like happy, fun songs; I’m not a big fan of songs that make people sad,” she said. “When we do ‘Daddy’s Grave’ live, it brings everyone down — it brings me down! — and I can see it. I decided I didn’t want to bring people down in that environment. ‘Daddy’s Grave’ is great for listening at home or in the car, but I don’t want to leave people with that taste. I want them to have fun and hang out with us. That song was kind of therapy; I was able to get it out, and it needed to be said, and it’s really touched a lot of people.”
And it proves that while she’s established herself as an artist in her own right, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. And she doesn’t mind a bit, she said.
“I’m very proud of my grandpa; I always have been, because he inspires me every day,” she said. “He inspired me to write songs, to play music, to live an unconventional lifestyle, and that it’s OK to do so. He has this aura about him that’s different than anybody in the world, and I think he really is more like Jesus than a lot of people, because he’s just so kind. It’s amazing how people from both sides just love him, and he can relate to anyone.
“I want to be just like him; however my music is not. I’m not as good of a guitar player, so you won’t get the same music, but hopefully you get the same kind of feeling you get when you see him play, because it’s coming from the same spot. I strive to have the same heart as he does.”
