The Education Foundation of Odessa has announced that their popular fundraising concert is coming back in 2022 and will feature Lukas Nelson & The Promise of the Real. The concert will take place at the Ector County Coliseum Sept. 22.
“Twenty years ago, the Education Foundation brought Willie Nelson for the inaugural benefit concert, now in 2022 we have his son Lukas Nelson. After having a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, we are excited to get things rolling again with a great band that is appealing across genres from country to rock,” says Jay Arrick, president of the Education Foundation Board of Directors. “Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real will continue the long tradition of our concert event being the best of the year for Odessa and the Permian Basin!”
The band has spent much of the past year on the road, performing sold- out shows across the country with a recent review in the San Francisco Chronical proclaiming, “Nelson is a natural performer with composure and maturity beyond his 32 years, whose stage theatrics brought the crowd to its feed and kept it there.” The band is touring in support of their widely acclaimed 2021 studio album, A Few Stars Apart – with standout singles “Perennial Bloom (Back To You)” and “Wildest Dreams” – which once again catapulted POTR to #1 on the Americana Albums charts for seven non-consecutive weeks.
Based in Texas, POTR is Lukas Nelson (lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano), Anthony LoGerfo (drums, percussion, tambourine), Corey McCormick (bass guitar, upright bass, Mellotron, vocals), Tato Melgar (percussion) and Logan Metz (piano, Wurlitzer, B3 organ, lap steel, banjo, Mellotron, vocals).
Since their debut over a decade ago, the band has toured relentlessly playing countless sold-out one-night shows and festivals around the world and occasionally serving as Neil Young’s road band, a news release said. Nelson also co-produced the music for 2018’s lauded A Star is Born film in addition to appearing in the film with the band and went on to win a BAFTA Award for Best Original Music and a GRAMMY Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media for his work.
Sponsorship tables for this event are available by calling the Education Foundation Office at (432) 456-7059 or emailing [email protected]. Reserved seating tickets go on sale Friday at the Ector County Coliseum box office and may be purchased online at https://www.boxofficesolutions.net/. Ticket prices are $35, $50, and $65 plus a handling charge.
The Education Foundation of Odessa provides a new and innovative source of funding to support the school district’s educational plan. The Foundation does not attempt to replace lost state funding, nor does it attempt to take the place of the district’s operating budget. When considering the level of funding required to educate students, the Foundation can expect only to provide funds for those projects and activities that go beyond the normal classroom experience. Such initiatives provide enrichment, research opportunities, teacher training, intervention and prevention strategies and extend the educational effort.
The mission of the Education Foundation is to create opportunities for education in Ector County ISD. Our vision is that every student in ECISD will be school-ready, college-ready, work-ready…world-ready.
