“Well, Sticks & Stones is more of a celebration,” Nelson says over the phone from Belfast, Northern Ireland “Sort of a joyful, sort of ‘getting back into life’ album. A Few Stars Apart [from 2021] was more reflective.”
Nelson says the tone and substance of the albums contrasted with respect to the moods surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. A Few Stars Apart is more attuned to the isolation of quarantine, while Sticks & Stones has more jubilance in a post-lockdown world. Sticks & Stones becomes more introspective and sober-minded toward the latter half, which Nelson says was by design, but the first half is a rather vivacious affair.
“We wanted people to dance and have fun,” he says.
Accordingly, partying and use of various substances is a recurring theme in the record. This is captured in less-than-subtle ways on tracks such as “Alcohalellujah” and “Every Time I Drink,” and in more subtle ways on songs such as “Overpass” (“much too stoned to make a fuss”) and the title track, “Sticks and Stones” (“sometimes when I’m uninspired / I take a hit to get me higher.”)
Nevertheless, Nelson doesn't seem particularly thrilled about discussing alcohol and weed. But in discussing these lyrical themes, he offers, “[The former] half of the songs were about my old party days.”
Nelson “quit everything,” including weed, he said in a 2022 interview with SPIN.
As celebratory as these songs are, they still hit on the occasional forlorn beat that's been a fundamental earmark of country music. “Every Time I Drink,” for instance, exudes the upbeat demeanor one would hear in a Waylon Jennings song while also singing a pining refrain (“Every time I drink, I think of her”) in a higher-register croon similar to that of Webb Pierce’s “There Stands the Glass.”
Nelson latches onto the Pierce comparison.
“Look, [‘Every Time I Drink’ is] a song about drinking,” he says. “It’s as country as it gets.”
"What gives me a joy is my sense of peace with the way things unfold." – Lukas Nelson
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The same can be said about every other song on the record, whether it.s about drinking, pretending to be more than just platonic with a love interest (“More Than Friends”) or even accidentally moseying into another person’s house after smelling their cooking (“Wrong House”). Whatever the theme, each song is a stylistic love letter to various snapshots of country music’s century-long history.
The album is also, as Nelson suggests, threaded with an overarching sense of joy. But what rouses joy in him?
“Oh, every time I play with my father, my brother, my [family],” he says. “We have a nice meal together as a family. My dogs give me a sense of joy. The loving relationships that I have. What gives me a joy is my sense of peace with the way things unfold.
" ... Every time I remember what my role is, it gives me joy.”
Accordingly, the snapshot Sticks & Stones represents in Nelson’s life and career is self-evident: It's a celebration of all that is wholesome (a word he uses frequently). It's an exuberant reminder of the spiritual edification that comes with experiencing joy and contentedness with those we love. For Nelson, some of those people just happen to be in the most iconic and influential country music family in Texas, so much of that celebration is intimately informed by the richest and proudest of musical identities.
Joy of all varieties is fleeting, but family and friends are forever. Nelson reminds us in Sticks & Stones that both can coexist in harmony to a tune we can all dance to.
After all, when there’s a time to mourn and dance, why not dance?
