{"id":805504,"date":"2020-03-20T12:30:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T18:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=970408"},"modified":"2020-03-20T12:30:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T18:30:33","slug":"how-the-luck-reunion-pulled-off-its-most-emotional-year-yet-with-no-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/how-the-luck-reunion-pulled-off-its-most-emotional-year-yet-with-no-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Luck Reunion Pulled Off Its Most Emotional Year Yet \u2013 With No Crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The eighth annual Luck Reunion<\/a> was supposed to draw around 4,000 people to Willie Nelson<\/a>\u2019s Texas ranch this week, with a lineup that included Nelson, Lucinda Williams<\/a>, John Prine, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, and more. Those plans, of course, went out the window due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Instead of canceling altogether, the small Luck Team \u2014 headed up by founders Matt Bizer and Ellee Fletcher \u2014 decided to get creative, reviving the festival as a livestream<\/a> concert, with performers broadcasting from their homes for charity. The result was more impactful than any traditional festival could have been. With Asleep at the Wheel\u2019s Ray Benson hosting from Austin\u2019s Arlyn Studios, artists checked in from around the world: Tami Nelson belted a fiery set from a record store in New Zealand; Paul Simon<\/a>, Edie Brickell, and their daughter Lulu harmonized the Everly Brothers\u2019 \u201cDream\u201d with Woody Harrelson in Hawaii. The format was endearingly loose \u2014 the perfect reminder that we are all in this together.<\/p>\n

Artists performed from their homes, with minimal production. Williams played a sparse, electrifying set from her home, under a painting of Jesus with an electric guitar. It was unclear if she knew she was being filmed between songs, but her banter with her band \u2014 likening the coronavirus<\/a> to roaches (\u201cThere\u2019s an old saying back home in Louisiana: You can live in a mansion or a shack, you\u2019re still going to have roaches\u201d) \u2014 felt like the beginnings of a song. Margo Price and husband Jeremy Ivey tried out some gorgeous new songs at their home piano, with a baby monitor close by. (They gave a window into their family dynamic; after Ivey made some dad jokes, Price rolled her eyes. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t even had any weed,\u201d she said.) Price also shouted out Fiona Prine, who was originally supposed to be at Luck with husband John, but is now at home in Nashville recovering from the virus. Tre Burt fingerpicked a powerful set of ballads despite a grainy camera connection. Nikki Lane apologized to viewers that she hadn\u2019t turned in the music video she\u2019d put together for the broadcast in time, and then filmed it playing from her computer with her iPhone. It didn\u2019t matter; it was still great. 
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How did they pull it off? \u201cWe set up a mini TV studio, pulled together by friends,\u201d founder Bizer explains. \u201cEssentially, I screened people that called in on their Skypes, etc., and then pushed them over to an engineer with multiple feeds, and he switched between them all. Sort of a tiny team effort.\u201d Bizer had a call with Paul Simon the day before, who needed to pre-tape his performance due to a shaky internet connection. (\u201cThey were all so sweet,\u201d Bizer says.) That was when Simon decided to invite his neighbor Harrelson over at the last minute. \u201cHe was like, \u2018I\u2019m gonna go next door and invite Woody,’\u201d Bizer says.<\/p>\n

\u201cCatastrophes seem to favor us,\u201d says Fletcher, recalling a vicious storm that threatened the festival a few years ago. \u201cWe thought the crazy storm year of Luck in 2016 ended up being the most memorable and special of them all, but weirdly the year of no Luck is pretty up there for us. It was just really special to see our team rallying around this superfast idea, our fans coming to the plate to donate to artists, and our creative community coming together to just try to create a bright spot in this weird-ass time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some artists called in for surprise performances. Neil Young performed a gorgeous fireside version of 1974\u2019s \u201cVampire Blues,\u201d one of the few times he\u2019s performed it acoustically. But the highlight was Willie, Lukas, and Micah Nelson. Sitting in the Texas living room where they grew up playing music together, they launched into Willie\u2019s main live opener, \u201cWhiskey River.\u201d WiIlie\u2019s voice was strong, and he looked thrilled to be at work again. (\u201cDad would never have [taken time off], and we would have never had this time if we had not been forced to,\u201d Lukas told RS<\/i><\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cStay safe and stay sober,\u201d Willie told his viewers before cracking up. Next, his sons played their own originals: Micah played \u201cEverything Is Bullshit\u201d; and Lukas played his moving ballads, \u201cSet Me Down on a Cloud\u201d and \u201cJust Outside of Austin.\u201d (\u201cThat\u2019s a good song,\u201d his father told him.) Lukas wrapped with \u201cTurn Off the News (And Build a Garden),\u201d which includes the line: \u201cI just want to love you while I can\/All these other thoughts have me confused\/I don\u2019t need to try and understand\/Maybe I\u2019ll get up, turn off the news.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching the broadcast go so well last night really gave me hope that the musical world will be able to be a major healing force and remind us not to lose our humanity during this time,\u201d says Lukas. \u201cAs soon as this is over and it\u2019s safe, I\u2019m going to run out and hug friends, kiss them, and be more grateful for the physical act of love than I ever have. I hope to see many pictures like the famous kiss at the end of WWII.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Luck Reunion is still available to stream on Twitch<\/a>. Venmo donations went to the artists and their favorite charities; at press time, they raised more than $190,000.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The eighth annual Luck Reunion was supposed to draw around 4,000 people to Willie Nelson\u2019s Texas ranch this week, with a lineup that included Nelson, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, Margo Price, Nathaniel Rateliff, and more. Those plans, of course, went out the window due to COVID-19. Instead of canceling altogether, the small Luck Team \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-18 19:47:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}