Lukas Nelson Previews New Album With Optimistic Track ‘Perennial Bloom’

For three weeks in the pandemic, Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real holed up at RCA Studio A in Nashville with producer Dave Cobb to record an album that Nelson describes as “coming home.” The result is A Few Stars Apart.

Nelson and the band preview the upcoming LP, their first since the one-two punch of 2019’s Turn Off the News (Build a Garden) and 2020’s acoustic rendering Naked Garden, with the hopeful song “Perennial Bloom (Back to You).” Opening with a simply strummed acoustic and Nelson’s plaintive, nasal voice, the track explodes into a euphoric prediction of better days on the horizon.

“Summer seed become my perennial bloom/summer’s healing coming soon,” Nelson sings, envisioning days with family and loved ones that “send me floating to the moon.” At just over three minutes, it’s a tight, radio-ready single for Promise of the Real, who often indulge in lengthy jams onstage and on earlier albums.

“I finally decided not to run from who I am and who I am destined to be. First and foremost, that’s a songwriter. That’s what this record means to me,” Nelson says in a statement. “There’s a story being told through the whole record. A story about connection and coming home.”

The singer-guitarist and Promise of the Real — drummer Anthony LoGerfo, bassist Corey McCormick, percussionist Tato Melgar, and pianist and utility player Logan Metz — will release A Few Stars Apart on June 11th via Fantasy Records.

A Few Stars Apart tracklist:
1. “We’ll Be Alright”
2. “Perennial Bloom (Back to You)”
3. “Throwin’ Away Your Love”
4. “A Few Stars Apart”
5. “No Reason”
6. “Leave ‘em Behind”
7. “Wildest Dream”
8. “Giving You Away”
9. “Hand Me a Light”
10. “More Than We Can Handle”
11. “Smile”