Биография

“This might be where it all breaks down,” he sings on “Competence Is Kindness.” “This might be where it turns around.” Nelson speaks frankly about his curious path. He appeared to be on the brink at 19 – a kid who left Houston for Austin and caught the ear of Rolling Stone, which deemed him “a teenage songwriting prodigy.” Early ‘90s performances offered a sort of rootsy Replacements vibe. The rawness of the performances sometimes belied the meticulousness of the lyrics. But those forces collided into something special that positioned Nelson for some seemingly inevitable break. A record deal came and went bust, delaying his progress from selling cassettes to something bigger. So “The Last Hurrah” became the first hurrah, with several hurrahs to follow. What resulted was a discography remarkable for its breadth. A goldmine of songs that sounded thrillingly rangy as performed by Nelson, but packed with the sort of thematic depth and melodic warmth that should circulate them well beyond his records and shows. Family and friends, love and life and death, time, nature, work, struggle, accountability, Nelson has written about the most relatable subjects with knowing use of metaphor and a watchmaker’s precision in his meter. These songs are structured such that they could spiral through the world in any number of styles or forms. More: https://www.beavernelson.com/bio -Andrew Dansby, January 27, 2023