The eighth studio LP from Lukas Nelson and his formidable Promise of the Real band feels intentionally re-emergent. Following the contemplative country meditations that defined 2021’s A Few Stars Apart and 2019’s Turn Off the News (Build a Garden), Nelson swings looser and more comfortably here, more barroom stage than backroad sage. Self-produced, Nelson noted that he wanted songs that could move a crowd, which Sticks and Stones delivers in sound and ethos. The title track immediately kicks in the backbeat and bluesy rip, a country-funk with laid-back electric riffs running into the gospel-tinged send-up of “Alcohallelujah.” Expanding his range, the album showcases Nelson’s voice more prominently than ever before, from low growls to the high-lonesome sustain of “Every Time I Drink.” A centerpiece duet with rising showstopper Lainey Wilson (“More Than Friends”) dishes dueling twang like a Seventies-era classic, while the climbing “Ladder of Love,” reeling “Wrong House,” and throwback honky-tonk of “Icarus” all roll through with an eclectic, effortless rollick. “Lying” is really the only tune that settles down. Trembling with heartbreak, the refrain – “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish that I was lying here with you” – presents the best play on words in an album playfully, smartly packed full of them.
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real
Sticks and Stones (6ACE/Thirty Tigers)
This article appears in July 21 • 2023.
