When your dad is a founding father of outlaw country and a major musical legend, at some point, you realize resistance is futile: Even if you don’t seek a career in music, eventually, it’s gonna seek you.
Like the Cash and Jennings kids, Paula Nelson picked up “Papa Bear” Willie’s way with a song early on — along with her aunt Bobbie’s skill on piano, which Paula started playing at age 7. Although her dad once advised her, “Remember to watch everything I do and do the exact opposite,” she drew influences from his Highwaymen pals and contemporaries such as Kris Kristofferson’s then-wife, Rita Coolidge, whose bluesy, supple vocal style provided one of Paula’s earliest templates as she found her own voice. Texas Monthly has called that voice “torchy,” and the Los Angeles. Times praised, “There’s no missing the unforced power of Paula’s singing.”
Music writers will be searching for more superlatives upon listening to the new recording by the Paula Nelson Band, LUCKY 13, being released Feb. 26 on Pedernales Records/Justice Records. Created at Ray Benson’s Bismeaux Studios in Austin, where Houston-born Paula was raised and still calls home, the album features 10 rootsy originals and three covers (including thetimeless “Jackson” and “Angel from Montgomery”) in a sultry Southern rock/blues vein.
