Lord Nelson Live at Martin’s Downtown

After several years of touring the country, playing clubs, barns, festivals, and everything in between, Lord Nelson set out to take a batch of road tested songs into the studio, with a very simple goal in mind: make a record that sounds like a bar show. Using a converted barn to track the record, guitarist Calloway Jones and collaborator Ivan Barry engineered two sessions across a few weeks, and the bones of an album were fitted into a suit.

With two previous studio records under their belt, the band were looking for a way to create a calling card for their boisterous live act, something that would bridge the gap between studio and performance. For the first time, this record features three writers and vocalists, with brothers Henry and Calloway Jones contributing to Kai Crowe-Getty’s set of songs. Rounding out the group are Andrew Hollifield and Niko Cventanovich on bass, Johnny Stubblefield on drums, and Dave Pinto on pedal steel and harmonica. The collection of songs marks a wide range of stories and characters, but there is a creeping lightness that settles around the edges of what could be darker themes in other hands. From car crashes, murder, bank robberies, devotion, trucks in lakes, drug busts, and relationships, to hope, triumph, and over coming the odds, this record engages a wide view of the human experience.

Seeking to move through recording quickly release the album so they could get back on the road, those plans came to a sudden halt with the pandemic, like the rest of the world. Does the world need this music now? Will it ever see the light of day? These were common thoughts over the preceding year. Finishing vocals in blanket forts, tracking guitars in an old farm house, and sending to friends to record parts enabled this process to grow and change slightly with the enforced break from touring. It allowed the band to pause and take in the songs and choices with a bit more thought. It changed the work and brought a reexamination. But ultimately, this record intends to bring people together. Dance, sing in the car, hum under your breath, crank up on the stereo, don’t take life too seriously for a few minutes. So this January, Lord Nelson are finally ready to share their third full length album, Transmission. Thanks for tuning in.