Particle Kid Releases Double Single Featuring Jim James & Willie Nelson

Particle Kid (Micah Nelson), shared two new singles, “All One Day (Shadow Of The Sun)” featuring My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James and “Amerikan Lyfe.” Both songs also feature Micah’s father, outlaw country legend Willie Nelson, and will appear on Particle Kid’s forthcoming double album, Time Capsule.

The guest-filled Time Capsule is set for release on Overseas Artists Recordings on April 22. In addition to Willie Nelson and Jim James, those who contributed to the 26-track double-LP includeDinosaur Jr.‘s J Mascis, as well as Mickey Raphael, Margo Price, Jeremy Ivey, Sean Ono Lennon and Sunny War, among others.

Micah Nelson released statements regarding “All One Day (Shadow Of The Sun)” and “Amerikan Lyfe.” Regarding the former he wrote:

“This was one of the songs I recorded with Tony Peluso and Aroyn Davis in Austin in March 2020, right when COVID happened and we were basically quarantined in the studio for a week. I cut the session a bit short and sent the band home early because shit was about to hit the fan and I didn’t think they would be able to fly home at all if we waited much longer, (which turned out to be correct). I stayed in Texas for two months, during which I recorded a lot of music with my folks as well, and my dad sang and played his guitar Trigger on a couple Particle Kid songs including this one.

”Jim James hit me up at one point feeling kinda isolated from quarantine life. He, my dad and I all share birthdays in the same week, so I invited him to sing on this song, which he did beautifully. It was nice to feel connected through this music, even at a distance. I liked the idea of all of us sharing a birthday week, singing a song together about the illusion of time … and how your whole life is your birthday ….because its all one day and the change from night to day is a subjective experience, relative to our confinement to an finite object rotating around a star. Our entire lives are one long day from the time of our birth to the moment we die… It’s cool.”

Regarding “Amerikan Lyfe,” Micah stated:

“I remember my brother Lukas Nelson and the band Promise of the Real were in a meeting with their manager when I walked into the other room and picked up my acoustic for no particular reason and started playing these chords. This melody appeared and suddenly I had the whole framework for the song. It just sort of slipped out. It’s funny how that happens.

“Later, we were on tour with Neil Young, leading up to Farm Aid, I think it was Indianapolis (hometown of Kurt Vonnegut!) where I wrote the lyrics. When COVID hit, I was recording with Tony Peluso on drums and Aroyn Davis on bass, with Steve Chadie engineering at Pedernales studio, outside of Austin. We were sorta quarantined in the studio for a bit. The version of ‘Amerikan Lyfe’ that’s on the album is the first and only take we did during that session.

“Shit was hitting the fan all around us in the world and there was an increasing existential anxiety about everything, so there was an odd comfort in being not only stuck in a recording studio and able to focus on making new music as a sort of temporary escape from it all. But it was especially very cathartic/therapeutic to have a reason to collectively scream ‘LIFE! LIFE! LIFE!’ over and over again as loudly as possible…

“It was also very cool that my dad wanted to play Trigger and sing on it. It’s a notably weirder song arrangement than he’s used to and I could tell he had a lot of fun doing it. His laugh at the end was something that I immediately knew had to be the last sound we hear to end the album. It sums the whole thing up. Having these great memories with folks I love to help offset such darkness during what was an otherwise very stressful time is… a true gift.”

Particle Kid will tour in support of Time Capsule with a run of shows opening for The Flaming Lips in April and May. Stream Particle Kid’s Time Capsule singles, “All One Day (Shadow Of The Sun)” featuring Jim James and Willie Nelson and “Amerikan Lyfe” featuring Willie Nelson below: