Lukas Nelson on his debut solo album, ‘American Romance’

Country singer Harlan Howard once famously said all you need is “three chords and the truth.” We kept thinking about that expression watching Lukas Nelson belt out a solo acoustic performance in the studio for today’s session.

While he’s no longer recording with his longtime band, Promise of the Real, American Romance might be the most genuine version of Nelson we’ve experienced yet. Recently sober and now working as a solo artist, his debut solo album serves as a reintroduction to Nelson and a meditation on a life lived on the road.

In this session, Nelson talks about why the more you travel, the more similarities you see in the people you meet; the genesis of the first song he ever wrote — later recorded by his father, Willie Nelson; and he shares his stellar cover of Paul Simon‘s “Still Crazy After All These Years.”

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.