When it came time for Lord Nelson to get back into the studio to make a new album, the band wanted to lean into exactly what has earned them fans and thousands of streams of their songs throughout their career: a burn-down-the-house live show. The Charlottesville-based band was looking for a way to create a calling card for their boisterous live act, something that would bridge the gap between studio and performance, so they took a batch of road tested songs into the studio with a very simple goal in mind and achieved just that. The resulting album, Transmission, will be released January 21, but Lord Nelson recently shared the first track from the album. (Lord Nelson, 2021)

“Tooth and Nail” opens Transmission with a raucous groove and electric guitars every bit appropriate for the kind of lights-down, beginning of the show anticipation usually reserved for the stage. “Navigating this world is a full time job and the person we become may be sometimes far removed from the vision we had when we set out on this journey,” say the band’s members about “Tooth and Nail.” “Own your disasters and keep moving.” Watch the video for “Tooth and Nail” now at this link and pre-order or pre-save Transmission ahead of its January 21 release here. 

For the first time, this Lord Nelson record features three writers and vocalists, with brothers Henry and Calloway Jones contributing to Kai Crowe-Getty’s set of songs. Rounding out the group are Andrew Hollifield and Niko Cventanovich on bass, Johnny Stubblefield on drums, and Dave Pinto on pedal steel and harmonica. The collection of songs marks a wide range of stories and characters, but there is a creeping lightness that settles around the edges of what could be darker themes in other hands. From car crashes, murder, bank robberies, devotion, trucks in lakes, drug busts, and relationships, to hope, triumph, and overcoming the odds, this record engages a wide view of the human experience.

Using a converted barn to track the record, guitarist Calloway Jones and collaborator Ivan Barry engineered two sessions across a few weeks, and the bones of an album were fitted into a suit. Lord Nelson initially worked to move through recording quickly as to release Transmission and get back on the road. Like the rest of the world, those plans came to a sudden halt with the pandemic. The band wondered, “Does the world need this music now? Will it ever see the light of day?” But finishing vocals in blanket forts, tracking guitars in an old farm house, and sending the sessions to friends to record parts enabled this process to grow and change slightly with the enforced break from touring. It allowed the band to pause and take in the songs and choices with a bit more thought. It changed the work and brought a reexamination. Ultimately, this record intends to bring people together—to dance, sing in the car, hum along, crank up on the stereo, and to stop taking life too seriously for a few minutes.

Transmission Track list:
Tooth and Nail
Hell or High Water
Country Desperation
Drag Me Down
Putting in the Time
Broken Part
Rolling Stoned
Cheap Red Wine
Let It Ride
Burn It Down
Julia