Lukas Nelson recalls childhood memories of listening to Neil Young’s albums over and over again with his brother, Micah. The pair would delve into the rock icon’s vast catalog beyond Harvest and Decade, hitting some of Young’s deepest cuts off lesser-touted records, like Zuma and On the Beach.
As the Nelsons (Willie’s kids) got older, their appreciation for Young got stronger, and eventually inspired the electric roots rock group Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real. And bassist Corey McCormick and Lukas decided to start the band, whose name is based on a line in Young’s “Walk On,” while attending a Neil Young concert in Santa Barbara.
As POTR rehearse for an upcoming tour, lead guitarist/singer Lukas and multi-instrumentalist/artist Micah (a frequent POTR contributor) are living out a childhood fantasy as they build setlists flooded with some of Young’s greatest classics, including “Going Back,” “Southern Man” and “Ohio,” with the man himself.
“I just want to pinch myself,” Lukas says from the road, somewhere between Houston and Dallas.
Lukas and the Promise of the Real were recently tapped to back Young on his 36th studio record, the politically saturated The Monsanto Years (out June 30), then head out with Young, as his backing band, on a national 12-date stadium tour that kicks off July 5.
“It’s a dream come true,” Lukas says. “I can’t put into words how incredible it feels.”
Beyond the jolts of fandom, the experience represents an opportunity for the 26-year-old Lukas to learn from one of the greatest songwriters of all time, and build his own adoring throngs. The education has extended beyond music.
“I try to absorb everything,” he says. “How he works and keeps his brain active. [Young’s] work ethic is second to none. There’s a level of clarity. He’s so on it all the time, he’s extremely honest and he’s not afraid to call anyone out. If he’s wrong, he’s able to admit it.”
Nelson views the finished record as documentation of the extraordinary experience.
“Every song evokes a memory of playing in the studio and makes me feel elated,” he says.
From the protest tune “A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop” (referencing Starbucks’ connection to a Monsanto lawsuit) to the environmental tirade “If I Don’t Know,” Nelson says Monsanto is more than another political album.
“It has poetic depth,” he says. “[Young] doesn’t mince words. There are facts in there.”
Following a couple of quiet albums over the past few years, Monsanto – recorded live in the studio without headphones – marks Young’s return to louder and crunchier Crazy Horse-era rock and roll, chocked full of sizzling back-and-forth guitar solos from Young and Nelson.
On Sunday, about a week before Nelson and the Promise of the Real hit the road with Young, they’ll perform – sans Neil – at the Monterey County Fairgrounds.
After two years of less-than-mediocre attendance, festival founder/producer Dan Miller made some drastic changes, all the way down to the name of the event. The Monterey Americana Festival is now the Monterey BaconFest, where bacon and music come together. For only $10 bucks per day, attendees get a well-crafted lineup – a mix of 10 touring and local acts over the course of the weekend – that fit snugly under the Americana music genre umbrella. It all goes down on the Fairgrounds’ Garden Stage.
And natch, there will be bacon. A lot of it, as Montrio Bistro Exec Chef Tony Baker (of Baker’s Bacon) and Tarpy’s Exec Chef Todd Fisher, former host of the television show United States of Bacon, will serve as ambassadors of a plethora of porcine-related products.
But music will dominate. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Chris Hillman’s career spans more than five decades, including stints with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas and The Desert Rose Band. Hillman has been nominated for a Grammy four times, his songs have been recorded by everyone from Emmylou Harris and Patti Smith to Beck and Steve Earle and he scored an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
The mandolinist is also credited, alongside Gram Parsons, as one of the pioneers of the California country rock that came out of the ’60s. With the Byrds’ 1968Sweetheart of the Rodeo, they unapologetically drove full-force, with Parsons now on board, into territory vastly different from radio-friendly psychedelic rock hits like “8 Miles High.” Hillman describes the masterful record as “country music with bluegrass nuances.”
“We had a great time making [Sweetheart],” Hillman says. “It wasn’t our best-selling record, but it opened the floodgates for The Eagles and a lot of other bands.”
In Monterey, Hillman will be joined by a longtime collaborator, former Laurel Canyon Ramblers frontman Herb Pedersen. The multi-instrumental singer has worked with everyone from John Prine and Jerry Garcia to John Denver and Linda Ronstadt.
“[Pedersen] is one of David Crosby’s favorite singers,” Hillman says.
From the Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn” to the Burrito Brothers’ “Sin City,” the acoustic duo delivers songs spanning Hillman’s career.
“It’s just mando and guitar,” he says. “These songs are in their purest form. I enjoy it because it’s challenging.”
Saturday won’t be the 70-year-old’s Fairgrounds debut. Hillman first played at the venue at the short-lived Monterey Folk Festival in 1963. But the musician forged an eternal love with the Fairgrounds in 1967, when the Byrds (Hillman, Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke) rocked the mainstage arena at the groundbreaking Monterey Pop Festival.
“It was the best rock festival ever,” Hillman says. “It was so well run and there wasn’t one problem. It was a joy and such a diverse lineup.”
Hillman’s Saturday performance marks one of only four summer appearances, which is by design.
“I’m not chasing a career, so I’m as active as I want to be,” he says.
Meanwhile, Albert Lee is more active than most teenagers. The 71-year-old British guitarist, who closes out the first day of BaconFest with dobro/steel guitar master Cindy Cashdollar, is on the road for at least 250 days of the year. Following three months in Europe, Lee is in the final days of a two-week break before he jumps back into another extensive tour, which will include a pair of special U.K. shows accompanying rock innovator Jerry Lee Lewis. The recently confirmed gigs are billed as Lewis’ final U.K. performances and double as 80th birthday celebrations.
In addition to his more than 20 solo records, Lee’s appeared on dozens of studio albums throughout the years by some of the world’s biggest recording artists, from Eric Clapton to Dolly Parton. He’s also toured with the likes of Bo Diddley and the Everly Brothers. Lee’s a guitarist’s guitarist – whether it’s jazz, blues, country or rock, he delivers gold on his signature Music Man axe.
“I play what I usually play and I think it works,” Lee explains. “My style covers a lot of ground.”
The development of his technique goes back to the ’50s. Lee and peers Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Clapton began as straight rock and rollers, pupils of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, but after they heard B.B. King and Muddy Waters, everything changed. Around the same time, Lee tuned in to American session guitarist Jimmy Bryant, known for wielding “the fastest guitar in the country.” While his British pals began to integrate electric American blues into their rock, Lee introduced some twang.
“I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done,” BaconFest organizer Dan Miller said after the first Americana Fest.
So he introduced some bacon.
Monterey BaconFest 11am-7pm (10am VIP entry) Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28. Monterey County Fairgrounds, 2004 Fairgrounds Road, Monterey. $10/advance; $15/gate; VIP: $45/advance; $60/gate; family tickets (parents plus children under 18): $25/advance; $30/gate.www.montereyamericanafestival.com
≈ Monterey BaconFest 2015 Schedule ≈
SATURDAY, JUNE 27
Delaney Ann and Southern SunDaze 11:30am
The Easy Leaves 12:15pm
The Silent Comedy 1:45pm
Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen 3:30pm
Albert Lee featuring Cindy Cashdollar 5:30pm
SUNDAY, JUNE 28
Mike Beck 11:30am
Lauren Shera 12:15pm
Midnight North 1:45pm
Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real 3:30pm
Jim Lauderdale 5:30pm
(1) comment
Did your lunch die screaming? Have you allowed yourself to be de-sensitived to the pain and suffering of sentient creatures? Have you been brainwashed by a few local chefs and the meat and dairy industry into believing that the lives of some animals are worth more than others? Are you so driven by base needs that you ignore your own compassion?
In China every year, they hold the Yulin Dog Festival. Close to 10,000 dogs are rounded up from homes, from the streets, many of them stolen. They are then slaughtered, roasted on spits whole and served as food to people that pay the admission price. There are protestors there too. If you were there, what would you do? Wouldn’t you try to go talk to the people, to let them know that the lives of these dogs mattered? That in America we love these animals, share our homes with them, and take them to the vets when they are sick? Would it become so unbearably sad when you remembered the dog you had when you were little, when you played fetch with him, the first time he sat when you gave him the command… What if he had become one of their victims, his body being made a mockery and sliced up and fed to drunken people that did not give his life the slightest second thought? I’m wondering what sort of reasons they would give you to make it ok for them to eat dogs. Would they say things like, we’ve been doing this to them for thousands of years why should we stop now, but I need my protein, circle of life, yeah, but they taste so good, plants are alive too, they were humanely slaughtered, this is their karma, etc. etc. etc.
Pigs are actually smarter than dogs. They are the 5th smartest animal on the planet. They have the IQ levels of 3 year old toddlers, are gentle creatures and look forward to the return of their human companions just like dogs. You can play fetch with them. Pigs understand the emotions attached to a person’s head position, and how these positions relate to attention. They can also understand the meaning behind a finger point. So I ask, what is the difference between a dog and a pig and a cat and a cow… If you willingly stripped away all the mind control, commercials and lies from the FDA, you would be left with but one answer: none. To someone like me, that has had the courage and selflessness to lift the veil of madness on our treatment of the animal kingdom, there is no difference. To me, everyone that attends this event are going to eat the dogs that I wish we all loved and cared for in the same way. It is so unbearably sad. I wish I could have saved them. I wish I had been able to sway public opinion, before they were hung upside down, in front of their own species, had their throats slit, were roasted, and their bodies made a mockery of in this MontereyDog Festival. I mean PigFestival. I mean BaconFest. They deserved better.
Please don’t pay someone to do this. Instead go home and plant yourself a garden full of leafy green vegetables and send the message to the organizers of this repulsive event, the cruel chefs and the meat and dairy industry, that you are an independent thinker. A true animal lover. A compassionate and good human being. That you choose life over death. Let them know that despite their propaganda and greed, you are able to form your own opinions and make the connection between the Yulin Dog Festival and the Monterey Bacon Fest. Look inside your heart and decide that your taste buds could not possibly be worth the unspeakable suffering and terror that these animals had to endure. Please make a stand for all the animals that you’ve ever loved and the ones that were equally as deserving by boycotting this event.
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