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Jacob Micah Nelson is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and multimedia artist. He performs and records under the name Particle Kid and has released four albums under that moniker; he was also a longtime member of the band Insects vs Robots. The youngest son of Willie Nelson and his wife Annie D'Angelo, and the brother of Lukas Nelson, Micah Nelson also works with his father as co-writer and producer and has appeared on Willie Nelson albums. He has served as the guitarist with Neil Young and Crazy Horse and is a founder with Young of The Chrome Hearts.
Willie Nelson gave Micah the nickname "Particle Kid" when Micah was 14. Micah believes it was a garbled stoner attempt to say "prodigal son." The nickname stuck and Micah went on to use it as a stage and band name in future years.
In 2012 Nelson released on the Teaching Machine label the Particle Kid EP Shapes, recorded in a solar-powered yellow recording-studio van he named "Vincent Van Gogh."
On September 27, 2014, Nelson performed with Neil Young and Promise of the Real at the "Harvest the Hope" concert in Nebraska opposing the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
In 2019 Nelson released the Particle Kid album Window Rock. Premier Guitar named it one of the best albums of the year.
Since 2016 Nelson has maintained a close relationship with Hen House Studios (also a record label) in Venice, California and its owner Harlan Steinberger. He has recorded various Particle Kid projects there over the years including Window Rock, Time Capsule, his self-titled album, and Particle War, his collaborative album with Sunny War, and made Particle Kid and Insects vs Robots videos there.
Nelson performed on the studio recording of the Flaming Lips single “Will You Return/When You Come Down“ from their 2020 album American Head and performed it live with them on Jimmy Kimmel's show the following year. Later in the year he opened for and sat in with the band on their fall tour.
In 2021 Nelson and Sean Lennon released the single "Velocirapture (The Serpent Flew)."
On April 22, 2022, Nelson released his fourth album as Particle Kid, the double-LP Time Capsule. Critics described it as "avant-folk" and "trippy Americana...a decade-spanning image of American spacetime troubadour music." It includes collaborations with J Mascis, Sean Lennon, Willie Nelson, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and others. That spring Particle Kid toured as the opening act for The Flaming Lips.
In spring 2023 Nelson collaborated with Margo Price on a cover of Willie Nelson's "Hands on the Wheel" as part of Willie Nelson's 90th-birthday celebrations.
In 2024 he joined Neil Young and Crazy Horse for their "Love Earth" summer tour, replacing Nils Lofgren on guitar. In 2024 he also formed a new band with Neil Young called The Chrome Hearts. Nelson contributed animation to the 2024 Neil Young film Coastal.
Also in 2024 he produced Willie Nelson's album Last Leaf on the Tree and was featured on the Arcade Fire track "Year of the Snake." In 2025 he performed with Arcade Fire at the Luck Reunion Festival.
In the early 2010s Nelson experimented with the "cymatics" technique of performing live music through water held in a speaker cone, and visually projecting the emerging surface patterns.
Nelson's visual artwork is featured and sold at the Moonlight Arts Collective.
Through his Spitball Pictures production studio Nelson produces and in some cases directs music videos and films for artists such as Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, Neil Young, Sunny War, Folk Uke, Anthony LoGerfo of Promise of the Real, and Tinariwen as well as Nelson's own musical projects. He does animation work such as creating the character animation for the 2016 "Blast" video from Clams Casino.
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