The first thing we learned about NYC-based singer-songwriter is that he's friendly with the Wednesday/MJ Lenderman circle of musicians that represents the current epicenter of his favored slacker country sound. When we learned about Hercules, Nelson's new album for the vital newish K Records imprint Perennial, the big hook was the Lenderman co-produced it and a bunch of key players from the Asheville scene were on it, including Karly Hartzman, Ethan Baechtold, Xandy Chelmis, and Landon George. That album is out this week, and it's getting one more big boost from that community.
Nelson rolled into Durham Friday for a last-minute gig at the Fuzzy Needle. Lenderman, who lives in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area now, took the stage. So did Hartzman, the leader of Wednesday. So did Brad Cook, the indie/roots super-producer who has worked with Lenderman on various Crutchfield-related business like Waxahatchee's Tigers Blood and the Snocaps supergroup. All three of those big-names were onstage with Nelson at one point to assist with "Just Shoot Me Now," the penultimate track on Hercules.
Bart Smith, who filmed the performance, shared some extra details over email: "Tracey Nelson had a show scheduled for Baltimore that night that got cancelled earlier in the week, so this whole thing came together in about two days. Jake practiced once with Tracey Nelson and then once with Brad the next day. Friday night was the first time they all played together. The three of them played the whole set with Karly joining on backup vocals for the first and last song."
Watch footage from the gig below.
