Lukas Nelson has posted a clip on his social media of his version of country superstar Luke Combs’ current song “Doin’ This.” The Promise of the Real frontman was moved to play the acoustic cover of a song he particularly identifies with.
“When I heard this @Luke Combs song, the lyrics really struck me as poignant,” he writes. “They represent what it means to be an artist. As this year comes to an end, I’m thankful to do what I do. But ‘I’d still be doin’ this, if I wasn’t doin’ this.’” Combs responded with an enthusiastic: “Hell yeah bro! Appreciate it. Sounds great.”
On the track’s release in November, Combs said of its lyrics about his pre-fame days as a jobbing musician: “There was never a plan B. Once I decided that this is what I was gonna do, it’s what I was gonna do whether that was at this level or at the level that I was at when I started.
“Music is the thing that I think makes everybody who does what I do’s blood pump and gets them out of bed in the morning, and just to be able to do that and write a song about it that you feel like genuinely can connect with some of your peers is really cool.”
Nelson and Promise of the Real released their album A Few Stars Apart in June 2021 on Fantasy/Concord. Produced by the Grammy-winning Dave Cobb, it was recorded live on eight-track tape over three weeks at RCA Studio A in Nashville, and described by Rolling Stone as “Nelson’s most compact, streamlined, and focused album yet.”
He and the band return to live action on February 25 at the WinterWonderGrass Festival 2022 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The event takes places over the February 25-27 weekend, with other acts including Trampled by Turtles, the Travelin’ McCourys, The War and Treaty, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, and many others.
Buy or stream Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real’s A Few Stars Apart.