Lukas Nelson American Romance LP (Black & White Split Color Vinyl)

Lukas Nelson came of age in the dives and diners of this country and his itinerant life showed him America as few others get to see it. Nelson ponders his relationship with the country with all its joy and heartbreak on American Romance, his first solo album and first under Sony Music Nashville.

Recorded by Grammy Award-winning producer Shooter Jennings, it shows the singer-songwriter expanding his sound while doubling down on the fundamentals of his artistry. "It's been a long and inspiring journey in the band," he says. "This is an opportunity to experiment with some new colors in the palette."

American Romance brings out those new colors in dazzling fashion, demonstrating Nelson to be a singer-songwriter of uncommon dexterity. He's just as likely to wrestle with heady existential matters as he is to lament his losses, and he's steeped in tradition without being strictly bound to it. Much like the land that provided its name, American Romance is a novelistic album teeming with great complexity and beauty that plays out like a series of chapters from his life.

"The heartache that America has brought me and the joy that it has brought me," he muses, "it's all led to where I am right now."

With American Romance, Nelson tunes into feelings of expectancy, newness, and a nervous uncertainty that's endearing. He pairs these fresh-faced emotions with a craft honed during his many years in the trenches of the music industry, and the resultant songs are masterfully constructed yet still conveyed from genuine beginner perspectives.