While his dad’s vice of choice might famously be marijuana, Lukas Nelson sure does seem to prefer its most common companion, alcohol, on his latest album “Sticks and Stones.” And while real life might not necessarily back that assertion — Willie’s son told The Tennesseean in 2020 that he cut both booze and pot out of his daily routine — the guy fakes it pretty well on these 12 songs as they are unapologetically soaked in drinks typically reserved for the older set.

The thing is, it works. There’s a discernable party atmosphere that carries through this concise, decidedly infectious collection of tracks, and that atmosphere suits Nelson and his Promise Of The Real bandmates like a lime with a tequila or a Maraschino Cherry in an Old Fashioned. Even if Nelson doesn’t party anymore, he’s certainly done enough of it to make sure an album that embodies those escapades comes across authentically fun and richly simple.

“Alcohallelujah” is dirty country rock that slithers along like the snake that died for the boots Nelson wears. Throw in sounds of a choir that fill out the chorus and you quickly have an anthem for those who won’t even blink at the $18 price tag of a tall Miller Lite the next time he performs it at a festival. In fact, the song feels made to ensure that the church textures on record will inevitably be replaced by the boozy fans destined to belt it as the sun beams down triple-digit temperatures, all hangovers be damned.

Speaking of hangovers, the song’s companion, “Every Time I Drink,” evokes the party-down nature of what the other side of fast living brings. “Every time I drink I think of her / In the mornin' her memory drains away,” Nelson proclaims before getting to the vulnerabilities attached to such a mantra: “Livin' is easy now, but it might get worse / 'Cause every time I drink I think of her.” It’d be unabashedly sad if the music behind it wasn’t so embedded in quirky country.

Actually, quirky country is the name of the game here as POTR goes to admirable lengths to craft music that never stops moving forward. “Wrong House” is a fun, train-groove send-up that sees Nelson constantly wind up at … you guessed it … the wrong house. “Icarus,” where Lukas leans as much into Willie as he’s ever sounded on record, is made for a honkytonk dancefloor, complete with jangly piano and a country-fried electric guitar. And then there’s “Ladder of Love,” which is a blast of a two-minute romp that moves faster than feet in cowboy boots are supposed to move.

It’s a party that never ends – and that includes the set’s best track, the Lainey Wilson collab “More Than Friends,” which chronicles the passion of a one-night stand that’s shared with someone who isn’t a stranger. “Forget tomorrow,” the hook reads before paying the thought off with the bare minimum amount of perspective. “We can face the music then / But I promise you tonight will never end / If we pretend / We're more than friends.”

Sobering up never sounded less fun.