The show must go on.
And it certainly did…
This weekend, Willie Nelson was slated to take the stage as part of the opening weekend of the 2024 edition of his Outlaw Music Festival Tour in Alpharetta, Georgia and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina along with Bob Dylan, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Celisse.
Very unfortunately for fans attending the shows (myself included), the 91-year old icon was feeling under the weather, and per doctor’s orders, was told to rest over the weekend and was unable to perform at the first run of shows. Of course, I believe in protecting Willie at all costs, so it was very understandable that he should rest since he was sick.
But luckily for all of us, Willie has an incredibly talented son who is an artist in his own right, Lukas Nelson, who filled in for this father and absolutely delivered in every way possible.
Backed by Willie’s longtime band, affectionately known as the Family Band including longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael, Waylon Payne and the rest of the crew, Lukas tore through the set covering all of the classics like “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground,” “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “On the Road Again” and many more, and it was captivating and downright incredible to get to see Willie’s son singing so many of his most beloved songs.
If you’ve followed Whiskey Riff for any amount of time, then you probably know I’m a huge fan of Lukas and his music, and to say that he came by his musical talent honestly would be a massive understatement. Like his father, he’s a wizard on the guitar and has a voice that filled out the entire amphitheater and then some.
He has the rare ability to hold the crowd in the palm of his hand with just the strum of an acoustic guitar (sound familiar?), and it’s very special to see him embrace his father and his legacy, while building his own name and doing his own thing with music, and I think that’s a huge part of what makes him such a special, and very rare, talent.
But of course, my favorite part of the night was hearing him sing Willie’s hit “Always On My Mind,” which has long been one of my all-time favorite songs and it you could quite literally hear a pen drop during this part (and most of) the show.
If this doesn’t bring the chills, I don’t know what will:
@spaseycasey Lukas Nelson covering @WillieNelson ♬ original sound – spaseycasey
If there was any lingering disappointment in the venue that Willie wasn’t there, it was pretty much gone after Lukas played the first song. Of course, I wish more than anything he could’ve been there, but this turned out to be such a special and unique show that I will certainly never forget.
And you have to see him cover “Crazy” while you’re here too… while they obviously get comparisons often in terms of their singing voices, their similarities are never more apparent than when Lukas sings his father’s songs (and I mean that in the absolute best way possible):
@spaseycaseyLukas Nelson singing Willie’s “Crazy” while filling in at Outlaw Music Festival in Charlotte🥹♬ original sound – spaseycasey
I can’t say it enough, if you aren’t familiar with Lukas’ music already, you have to do yourself a favor and check it out. He recently announced the hiatus of his longtime band, Promise of the Real, and is seemingly continuing a solo career that I am very much looking forward to.
And while we’re on the subject of Willie and Lukas, if you’ve never heard their duet of Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe,” you are sorely missing out and it’s time to change that right now: