Looking the part has never been a problem for Lukas Nelson. Between his scruffy charisma and clear love of the stage, the rocker looked so much the part that Bradley Cooper recruited him as the “authenticity consultant” for A Star Is Born, modeling his character’s look and presence after Nelson’s. That gig bloomed into a bigger role contributing to the film’s soundtrack, parts of which Nelson co-wrote, and on screen, where Nelson and his band Promise of the Real appeared as Cooper’s backing group. Symbiotic relationships don’t get more glamorous than this: a rock star who looks like a movie star, helping a movie star look like a rock star.
For Nelson, A Star Is Born was just the latest lucky break in an already charmed life. The son of Willie Nelson, he inherited quite a bit of his father’s talent and, just as importantly, enough of his father’s connections and goodwill to grant him a head start in an industry where traditionalists devoted to the 1980s Rolling Stone Record Guide ideal of Good Music aren’t exactly hard to come by. By his early 20s he was opening for and recording with his father; after 2014’s Farm Aid he and his band began backing Neil Young, further cementing their standing among rock purists. Even before his big-screen moment, his band was already well on its way to becoming to throwback roots-rock what Greta Van Fleet are to blacklights and bell bottoms.
Lady Gaga lent her star power to Nelson and Promise of the Real’s 2017 self-titled breakthrough album, and an air of celebrity hangs over the group’s new Turn Off the News (Build a Garden) as well. Sheryl Crow sings backup on the title track, a Byrds-esque imagining of a better world, while Kesha graces “Save a Little Heartache,” a breezy piña colada of a blues-rock jam, and Neil Young sits in on pump organ on a rustic reprise of the title song. Randy Houser and Shooter Jennings both guest, too, although they take a respectful backseat to a father/son duet on “Civilized Hell.” The younger Nelson’s reedy lisp so resembles his father’s that it’s like hearing Willie sing with a Benjamin Buttoned version of himself.
Sometimes Nelson even seems to be writing for his father’s voice. “I don’t trust computers anymore, gonna buy a little weed in the marijuana store,” he ambles over some leisurely twang on “Lotta Fun,” accompanied by Margo Price. “Simple Life” doubles down on the boomer-baiting, playing like a worry-free rewrite of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound).” Nelson’s entire persona is pitched somewhere between a tailgater at a Jimmy Buffett concert and Paul Rudd’s surfer bro in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, bragging that he quit wearing a watch because his cell phone has a clock. To the extent he acknowledges society’s woes, it’s only to recommend how best to ignore them.
That escapist worldview may be the most divisive thing about an album that otherwise aims to build bridges. Nelson is a natural showman, and his band plays with similar spirit—there isn’t a moment on Turn Off the News where they seem to be faking their enthusiasm for this material. There’s a fine line between escapist and naïve, though, and Nelson and company aren’t afraid to toe it. The extent to which listeners enjoy this record depends on how much they buy into the fantasy of Nelson and his famous pals clinking Coronas around the pool while the rest of the world goes to hell. If it feels a little hollow, well, that’s by design.
Buy: Rough Trade
