Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real The Capitol Theatre, NY Oct 22, 2021
POTR’s First Show back at the Cap since Covid
I’m in love and I don’t really know how I got here. Perhaps it is the path of all want to be guitarists to fall for their guitar heroes. Watch all their YouTube videos. Follow their Quarantunes livestreams during the pandemic. Try to play and sing their songs. What if your career training path shares musicians to help you stay alive? Cheer you up. Rewards you for holding on. Trusting them.
So, where exactly do I fit into all of this? Salesforce Trailhead is a free online training program offered to learn cloud technology. They have shared the best musicians to help keep us learning and customers motivated through the pandemic. I followed the music to learn all I could about the artists that inspired me to keep going. I have also been learning guitar, attempting to write songs and writing a historical-based novel about race, gender and music history since 2016. Willie Nelson, Bobbie Nelson and their stories just happened to be part of my reading and research. I’d never seen Willie’s son, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real live in concert, on their own, before tonight. I saw them at Farm Aid during the daytime in Hartford, last month, a fundraising concert for farmers. They played a shorter set of songs that was great, but not a full concert.
Lukas and his band have me captivated at the moment. This isn’t easy to explain because I did not spend my life in Texas, or grow up going to Willie Nelson shows. Of course, I knew Willie Nelson’s music from radio and tv. Yes, I spent decades dedicated to art in support of organic farmers. I helped produce a five gallery show of Art and Farming history artifacts in Marin County. I worked in organic and natural foods and one of my sons has followed in this arena. The other one is producing his own music.
Lukas and his bandmates are just the nicest, most dedicated and talented group of surf and ski monkeys we have holding up the fort. Covid times have been like a war. Musicians are mental healthcare providers. Magicians. Light in our darkest hour. You can’t argue that concerts (and all of Lukas’s Quaratunes livestreams) are highly therapeutic, especially if you are an intermediate guitar player trying to improve.
Lukas Nelson and POTR packed the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York on a Friday night in October, during the week of Phil Lesh and Friends Birthday and Halloween shows and celebrations. It is too much fun to miss. You know that feeling when you spent your last money on seeing your favorite bands and you are high as a kite naturally? No seriously. I am not weed, as Margo Price gleefully jokes to her fans and Willie Nelson followers, but I get high off of watching and being immersed in live music, sound and lights. Dancing. Occasionally singing along with my favorite songs. Practicing guitar at home and attempting to write and discover the next great, memorable catchy tune.
I think people believe that because Willie Nelson has weed as a side business in his life, and because there are so many jokes about him smoking all the time, that the world thinks this is what his family is all about. It’s far from the truth. They are incredible musicians and business people. All of them. They are not stoned all the time. This isn’t at all what the music and fundraising profession is about. I think marketing a singer or songwriter solely based on their connection to any drink or recreational drug is lame. They are an extraordinarily talented musical family with a long history in the country, rock and popular music arena.
This family is beyond talented, and it technically has nothing to do with weed. Yes, weed… that natural, legal (in many states), agricultural crop that helps people in pain and is a medicine that’s occasionally used in songs and jokes that garner a chuckle from the audience. Much like David Crosby jokes on Twitter, where he rates the size of joints rolled in photos that fans share. It’s just light-hearted, silliness. This natural remedy that has helped Willie and Bobbie Nelson and millions of people deal with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, it isn’t really related to their ability to make music. No one goes to Farm Aid, a Willie Nelson concert or Lukas Nelson concert to get stoned. That’s definitely not what it’s all about. I’ve seen more genuinely decent and kind people eating and drinking at concerts than I’ve ever seen smoking anything. Sure, Outsidelands in San Francisco had an entire section of the park set up to sell edibles called Grasslands. It’s still not what most people are there for. They are there for the music first, to see their favorite bands and be with friends, food, drinks and unique experience of this particular live event.
I grew up fairly close to the Capitol Theater, but never attended anything here until the last five years. Learning guitar and songwriting have kept me alive since 2016 when I left an abusive relationship and was forced to live in my car in California for a while. Researching about the music industry and live events has kept me learning and growing.
Attending a Lukas Nelson and POTR show at the Cap is simply a blast. There is something for everyone here at the Capitol Theatre. From the countless glass chandeliers, deep red walls, lines and curves of architecture from the roaring twenties (the venue was built in 1926), to Garcia’s Bar, with Jerry Garcia memorabilia on the walls. A couple is seated in Garcia’s beneath Jerry’s electric “Tiger guitar”, which I notice for the first time this night. It has an incredibly detailed, mother of pearl inlayed tiger at the bottom and was used by Jerry from 1978–1988 after his first guitar named, “Wolf” and before his last guitar, “Rosebud”. The “Tiger guitar” was actually the last guitar Jerry used in a live concert. Next to the case with the guitar, a gold album, also in a glass case, marking the sale of 500,000 records. Crowds of vaccinated people are gathered here on this Friday night. It is loud. People are talking, laughing, smiling. I’m so happy to be here again. The last time here was for Sheryl Crow. Her concert was equally impressive and I learned about all her bandmates and the many guitars she played during the show. Her dedicated fans who ran down the aisles to get a photo during her happiest songs. Everyone stood up and wanted to dance and sing along with Sheryl’s songs.
Tonight, I am here to see what a Lukas Nelson and POTR concert is really like. What magic will he bring to the table of live concerts? What makes Lukas Nelson shine Live in concert?
I order a whiskey sour at the bar and pray for enlightenment. I thought of Jane Goodall, taking that shot of whiskey online over zoom when she was awarded a million dollar grant for her work recently. Metallica’s new whiskey brand. Willie’s song, “Whiskey River, take my mind…” and here I am, happy to have my one little drink in hand, as I walk down the steps and through the crowd who are waiting for Lukas and his band to take the stage. The drink tasted delicious, and I ate all the ice while I waited and talked to some of the others in the audience.
Lukas and the band walk onto the stage and the crowd roars. The dance floor, which had individual seats for Sheryl Crow, has now been cleared and is open for people to dance and move freely. It fills up with bodies, but no one is pushing or shoving anyone. There is kindness in this crowd. These are Lukas’s New York, New Jersey and Connecticut fans. Fans of the local radio station, 107.1 the Peak. It’s their 1/2 Birthday show, and they have been playing and promoting Lukas and this concert. 1071ThePeak.com
It just now hits me that this is the first concert since Covid that I have actually been able to move around and dance again. No wonder I feel so happy. But that’s not all of it. I am stoked because Lukas is at the Capital Theater. The closest theater to my hometown. It was Jerry Garcia’s favorite venue on the East Coast. It’s the venue with the best light shows I’ve ever seen.
Bassist, Corey McCormick’s jacket glows. It is the first thing I notice. A patchwork, a magical dream coat shouts at me like a tree of all my favorite fruit, with an electric, baby-blue bass, his hat and glasses top off the well-dressed man persona with flair, but then the lights from above and behind him light up like a neon starburst. It feels like kaleidoscopic fireworks with flavors that haven’t been invented yet. What is it about being bathed in color, light and sound that awakens every molecule of our bodies?… Turns off any pain and instantly forces us to move, bounce, jump, sway, sing, shout, act like nothing is wrong at all?
“Oh the places you will go… Soon you’ll be where Boom Bands are playing…” a Dr. Suess book and quote, from the book my ex-husband, a musician, once gave me. I think how I never would have dreamed I’d be here and get to see all the bands I’ve seen the last five years. I am at a concert and at the Cap, once again, happy to see Lukas and his friends, who I empathize with and care deeply for. They are here to perform after all the hard work of writing, recording a new album in Nashville “A Few Stars Apart”, with Dave Cobb, practicing, memorizing and finally… Live shows are back! What we’ve all waited for. We are alive.
Lukas starts off with the song “Start to Go”. The audience is hushed and we are slowly drawn in.
Logan takes a piano solo on the upright piano that is towards the front of the stage. His white cowboy hat glows in the blue light. Everything around him is bathed in blue, from the piano to Lukas’s electric guitar on the stand. Only Logan’s hat and the top of his head appear from the front rows. Two spotlights shine down as he plays, trills that evoke a classic pianist in concert. All the heads of the spotlights at the top of the ceiling look like stars, shining down from a night sky.
Lukas sings a new song, “More than We Can handle”. He’s playing with a Gibson Bob Dylan SJ-200 Acoustic Electric Sunburst, with double pickguards, etched with lilies and flowers in white. His NELSON leather strap with the luck family horseshoe under the name is also a beautiful design. Design and art in music, like these details on the guitars and strap are really special.
When Lukas sings “Just Outside of Austin” everyone loves this song so much. Sunflowers light up on the back wall, glowing yellow from a purple and blue background. It reminds me of the sunflower fields in Maui and California. Lukas makes Austin seem like the most beautiful place, and of course, with all the music history and musicians from there, I want to go there as soon as I possibly can.
Lukas is wearing a red shirt with a V neck, a black jean jacket, jeans, boots and a cowboy hat. His hair has grown back some since he cut it off and donated it during the pandemic. It’s now shoulder length, and he has grown a mustache and beard. We’re heading towards “Movember” when the mustache is the thing in support of men and medical health. Men are encouraged to grow mustaches in November to support this non-profit, raising funds for men. Since 2003, Movember has funded more than 1,250 men’s health projects around the world. Learn more at Movember.com
We all gaze ahead, as Lukas walks up to the front of the stage, into the spotlight for each solo during his songs. He closes his eyes and plays from his heart, muscle memory in his fingers– and thousands of people cheer and take in these solos, his bending of strings, sliding up and down the neck. Whether it’s an acoustic or electric guitar, Lukas can play anything with ease and prowess. He is a beautiful man, with his shining locks glowing in the lights. For a few moments, as he tilts his head back and the light hits his dark blonde hair, it glows golden and he looks like Nirvana’s guitarist Kurt Cobain.
With his hat on, and the way the light marks his mustache and beard, he now looks like Duane Allman, of the Allman Brother’s band. All with his eyes, closed, this stunning image of a cowboy, reminiscent of Hollywood’s glory days of cowboys in film, from Ray Whitley, who first played at Rodeo’s and became one of Hollywoods first singing cowboys, to Gene Autry who became a true star of the screen, Lukas personifies this dream of what an American farmer, rancher or country musician in the southwest is supposedly all about. The music video for “Just Outside Austin” shows his father’s ranch and horses in Luck, Texas.
Even if we don’t know anything about Texas, we imagine all the men can play guitar, ride horses and grow a mustache if they want to. Lukas is calm, cool and passionate about his music and his guitar playing. It sort of feels like this stunningly, handsome cowboy is slowly walking up to a draw… A shoot out, but under the lights here, it’s… “I’ll show you what I’ve got”… but instead of a gun, it’s a guitar. We are witnessing a man raised by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and many local guitarists in Maui, from the nature and honkeytonks of Texas, to the rodeos and surf in Maui and California.
For anyone who’s never been on a horse, or surfed a wave, or held a guitar everyday until it feels like a part of you and you can “play like the wind”– with anyone, from Neil Young to Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow or Willie Nelson, it’s powerful to watch Lukas play. There are so many experiences and people that shaped who he is today. It sounds crazy, but you just want to give the guy a hug for all he has been through to get to this moment. It’s a feeling of pride for how accomplished he is. As my guitar hero, I want to be this good someday, but I’ll never be a beautiful man, with stature and poise and hair on my chest that glows in the spotlight.
I can only imagine how incredible it would be to learn guitar from Lukas, laugh with him, swim with him, ride a horse, and love life playing music with friends. It’s beautiful to see someone in the prime of their life and career, with a band that is equally talented, occassionally goofy, and yet, humble. True gentlemen.
The moments, when Lukas plays his solos, are hard to forget. The audience cheers him on. Each song is a story bringing something new to an artist’s repertoire. Lukas has written about a friend who was abused in “Leave em Behind”. It’s certainly helped me on my journey to escape domestic abuse. His song, “Entirely Different Stars”, one of my favorites off his “Naked Garden” album, is incredible live, from the epic light show that is perfectly synchronized to the pounding beat, to the slowing of the song afterwards, like a wave that has already broken and is slowly rolling into shore. The tempo changes, and “Goodbye, dying dream… hello guitar”… and then, Lukas’s perfect, electric guitar solo. This song speaks of spaceships, issues with the environment, greed, and escaping it all with music.
The glorious sense of perfect timing in a song and lighting is witnessed in a live concert. The actual waves of sound hit you and move you. You physically feel the music from the speakers. The railing in front of me is actually shaking from the sound, and my tiny video camera in my hands is shaking from this movement. It’s crazy good. It’s all there in front of you…no disguises or videos or livestreams or zooms or YouTube… just human beings, finally having fun again, in their element. It’s so wonderful, you smile again like you can’t imagine was possible after a pandemic. You see other people happy and alive. You marvel at the magic of art created by man, woman, and family.
I could describe the entire show, every song, and all the different guitars Lukas switched between. Corey’s different bass instruments, the new upright electric Yamaha classical Bass is stunning and sounds incredible. Logan also played several different instruments as well, from keys to piano to lap steel string to banjo. But I won’t detail that here. You can read the blog write up from The Cap by Chad Berndtson that does that here. I will share a few links to videos, but again, these are not at all like a live experience, when you see the lights above you and all around you. You see people in the balconies and others dancing en masse.
If I had to critique the show, my initial thoughts are only that Logan was hard to see. I would move him out closer to the audience so you can see the different instruments he is playing up close, as you can Corey and Lukas. I would take advantage of the Capital theater’s space, and modify the light show for the walls for each song. For example, during Sheryl Crow’s show, she had video of a girl surfing on the side walls. Something you could never capture in video facing forward towards the stage. In Lukas’s show, there were stars on the walls and ceiling for one of the songs. This made me think of other ideas for lighting. What if a tree or flower was growing on the walls, from roots to full bloom, through the seasons? Images from space? What other light shows can be learned from to create something incomparable that can’t be seen anywhere else? My brain wants to see horses too. I don’t know why. The way their tails move so slowly, like the ocean.
I somehow also want to see Lukas smile. He’s so cool and serious and so into his music at this concert, but I wish he would smile. I hope you are having fun up there. I know I want you to be happy when you are sharing your music.
When Lukas plays “Breathe”, at the end, a song he often plays with his father, you definitely wish Willie Nelson was there. The love that Willie gave Lukas and Micah and all his kids in the form of music is beautiful. He handed down his talent and craft to the next generation.
I feel so grateful to have been there. It was like finally getting to see your favorite person doing what they’ve spent their life working on. What other profession can provide so much joy to so many people?
I love musicians.
Thank you, Lukas and Promise of the Real. Thank you to everyone at the Capitol Theater and The Peak, 107.1.
Let the music play on! (For more photos & to connect, find me @cproppe on Instagram).
