Another day of gray skies and rain in Cleveland but Lukas Nelson and opener, The Band Loula, spread rays of musical sunshine inside the Globe Iron.

A spirited Nelson started his 21-song, 90-minute set with “American Romance,” the title track of his latest release, one of seven numbers from that album including “Pretty Much,” “Make You Happy,” “Born Runnin’ Outta Time,” “Ain’t Done” and the breezy, psychedelic cowboy feel of “All God Did.” While he played electric guitar for many of the songs with his five-piece backing band, Nelson returned to his solo acoustic guitar mindset with “Madness” (aka “Indifferent to the the Madness of Man”), a cover of Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe” (a song Willie also covered on his 2012 album, “Heroes”) and “Turn Off the News (Build a Garden)” as well as the first number of a four-song encore.

He was in such a good mood that several solo acoustic numbers were added to the setlist. He was on guitar for “Madness,” and “You Were It,” a song he wrote at 11 years old, showed it to his dad, Willie Nelson, who then recorded and put it on his 2004 release, “It Will Always Be” (“It gave me a lot of confidence to play music and I’d like to play it tonight,” he said as part of its introduction). He appeared on piano for “A Few Stars Apart,” which he penned for a friend who passed away.

With a history that encompasses writing, recording and performing with his dad as well as recording and performing with Neil Young, he similarly has a gift for writing an engrossing song whose simplicity masks its deeper ideas. Nelson’s guitar playing also had shades of Young in the fading notes of “All God Did” and his solo on “Just Outside of Austin,” echoed the picking style of Willie.

The duo of Malachi Mills and Logan Simmons, collectively known as The Band Loula, offered a brief but impressive performance. Knowing each other since they were 14, they’ve been writing and blending their harmonies for years, and it shows. Their sound on songs such as “Who Get to Heaven,” and “Marshall County Man” blends swampy blues, country, gospel and folk. Mills and Simmons ended their set with a sultry version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” to a crowd that was won over a few numbers earlier.

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