Outlaw Genes
Pass To Son
Micah Nelson
Micah Nelson counts himself lucky it was his brother Lukas who took up the mantel of country music like their father, the legendary Willie Nelson. In a way, watching his older brother take a similar road as his father cleared him of any pressure to follow that path — which is good, he says, because it likely wouldn’t have made a difference.
“But I love that I get to play music with my brother and my dad, and I think we all understand what each other does and respect it,” Micah says. “We’re all very different artists, but we’re the same because we’re artists. My brother’s got a little bit of an avant-garde side to him, and I’ve got a little bit of a pop side to me, and we get to channel those things through each other. It’s all good.”
Some of those family influences will likely manifest today on the Walmart AMP stage as Micah and Lukas join Willie on the Outlaw Music Festival Tour. What started as a festival last year in Scranton, Pa., is now a touring production of rotating Americana and country acts — and whatever you consider Micah’s sound to be.
“A lot of my songs kind of tend to have an experimental edge to them,” he says. “Every show is very different, and I like that about it — even I never really know what’s going to happen.”
And for Micah, that embodies the essence of “outlaw.” Though the term has come to be a moniker for the style of country music musicians like Willie Nelson made famous, Micah relates it more to a way of being — a spirit, an attitude, fun, freedom.
“Ultimately, to me it’s about creative expression, and giving negative-one-thousand f***s,” he says. “Being yourself as an artist and having integrity in what you do and believing in that, regardless of what you’re expected to be doing.”
Showtime is 6 p.m. today. Tickets are $46-$155.50 at arkansasmusicpavilion.com.
— Jocelyn Murphy
jmurphy@nwadg.com
