Mark Bennett
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Everybody has an image of Willie Nelson stored somewhere in their memories.
A big bandanna. Long red and gray hair, slightly tamed by braided ponytails. His old Martin guitar, with a hole worn into its body after decades of strumming. “On the Road Again.” Farm Aid.
Lukas Nelson knows him first as “Dad.”
“I really look up to him,” Lukas said Wednesday.
It’s not hard to detect that bond. Lukas was speaking by cellphone as he and his band — Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real — traveled from a Tuesday night show in Bellingham, Wash., to a pair of gigs in Alta, Wyo., tonight and Friday night. The group already criss-crossed America this summer, from New York to California, Texas, Wisconsin and many points between.
“I feel most at home when I’m on the road,” Lukas said. And he just can’t wait — really — to get on the road to Terre Haute, again.
Promise of the Real — led by singer-songwriter-guitarist Lukas Nelson — has played at The Verve in downtown Terre Haute three times, drawing large crowds. But next week, the four-man Los Angeles-based band will see its biggest Hautean audience yet. They’ll unleash their blend of rock, blues, funk and country at the Blues at the Crossroads festival. They’ll anchor the late-Saturday-night slot of the 10th annual event, which features 12 bands in two days, Sept. 10 and 11.
Lukas’ family lineage became apparent the first time he and Promise of the Real appeared at The Verve. During the band’s soundcheck, Connie Wrin instantly detected the vocal resemblance between Lukas, who is 21 years old, and Willie, who’s now 77.
“I literally got goosebumps,” said Wrin, owner of The Verve and organizer of Blues at the Crossroads. “It was like, ‘Wow, he sounds just like his dad.’”
The similarities aren’t merely genetic. Lukas grew up on Willie’s Honeysuckle Rose tour bus. As a newborn baby, he tagged along with his parents — Willie and Annie Nelson — on his dad’s tour with The Highwaymen, which also starred legends Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. As Lukas got older, he watched his dad play guitar and sing alongside Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
He learned how to entertain onstage.
“I’m the kind of guy who absorbs a lot,” Lukas said of his experiences around Willie’s talented friends, “but my dad had the biggest influence on my stage presence.”
As songwriters, Lukas feels they’re even closer — “immensely” similar, he said. Willie’s songwriting, not his voice, created his first break in Nashville. He penned classics such as “Crazy” for Patsy Cline and “Night Life” for Ray Price. Nearly 50 years later, his son not only sings, but also writes the bulk of Promise of the Real’s music.
“I think we write a lot alike, actually — the phrasing and the way I hear a song in my head,” Lukas said.
But rest assured, Promise of the Real isn’t a Willie Nelson tribute band. Instead, their sound has hints of Neil Young’s bluesy side, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. They’ve earned critical acclaim with a distinct sound, highlighted by Lukas’ vocals and guitar work. He’s joined by bassist Corey McCormick, drummer Anthony LoGerfo and percussionist Tato Melgar. They’ve opened for B.B. King, Dave Matthews Band, Blues Traveler and, yes, Willie Nelson. In fact, Wrin first heard Promise of the Real when they joined Willie on stage at Farm Aid 2009 in St. Louis.
“Lukas is a little more rock than Willie,” she said, “but [his music’s] still got that passion that reaches into your heart.”
That spiritual link is no accident. “I’m pretty close to my family,” Lukas said. His parents still live in the homes of Lukas’ boyhood (when they weren’t on the road) in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles and Hawaii. He is one of Willie’s seven children (the elder Nelson had been married three times previously). Lukas said, “I had a pretty normal childhood.” Willie, he added, “was around a lot.”
With such hectic schedules, they usually try to pick a central location to get together as regularly as possible. And the Nelsons do stay busy. While Lukas and his band rock the Blues at the Crossroads crowd on Sept. 11, his dad’s fall tour makes a stop in Las Vegas. From here, Lukas and Promise of the Real then head to California, Utah, Arizona, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada and back to California.
“We make a living on the road,” he said. “We pay the rent, and make music, and to me, that’s a success.”
Sounds like a line Willie would sing.
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
