Tedeschi Trucks Band and Lukas Nelson wrapped a run of joint tour dates on Sunday in San Diego, where the country music scion joined the 12-piece blues battalion for Neil Young‘s “Helpless.”
Nelson’s appearance on the tour coincided with Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks reintroducing the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-recorded classic to TTB’s live catalog, playing it for the first time in four years. Willie Nelson‘s eldest son would join Tedeschi Trucks Band for takes on “the song”Helpless” in Woodinville, WA (8/5), Bend, OR (8/8), and Santa Barbara, CA (8/13), but Sunday’s version at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park in San Diego carried an added weight of finality—just as the song did 50 years ago at The Band‘s 1976 farewell concert, immortalized in Martin Scorsese‘s The Last Waltz.
Nelson is touring with a new solo band after putting his longtime backing band, Promise of the Real, on an indefinite hiatus back in 2024. Coincidentally, Promise of the Real bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony LoGerfo then joined up with Neil Young as part of his new backing band The Chrome Hearts, along with Lukas’ brother, Micah Nelson (aka Particle Kid). Lukas and Promise of the Real spent several years and a number of albums backing up Neil throughout the mid-to-late 2010s…