Lucero is renowned as one of Memphis, Tennessee's forebears of Alt-Country music helping put the Americana genre on the national map with two decades of rigorous touring of over 200 shows a year. Leading up to the end of 2019, Lucero settles into the Sweetwater Music Hall for a three-night run from Friday, December 27 through Sunday, December 29, 2019. Lucero tours in support of their latest studio album, Among the Ghosts, now available via notable Nashville indie label Thirty Tigers.
It's been two decades since original members Ben Nichols, Brian Venable, Roy Berry, and John C. Stubblefield (keyboardist Rick Steff joined in 2006) started playing shows in Memphis. From their first set performing to six people to co-headlining Red Rocks Amphitheater, Lucero (meaning: morning star) shines bright on Among the Ghosts with lead singer Ben Nichols' bourbon-soaked growl now even more distinctive and commanding than ever. Among the Ghosts was recorded and co-produced with GRAMMY Award-winning engineer/producer and Memphis native Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Drive by Truckers) at the historic Sam Phillips Recording Service, the studio built by the legendary producer after outgrowing his Memphis Recording Service/Sun Studio.
Recorded primarily live as a five-piece, Among the Ghosts eschews the Stax-inspired horns and Jerry Lee Lewis-style boogie piano featured on some of the band's past recordings for a streamlined rock 'n' roll sound that pays homage to their seminal influences as it seeks to push that legacy into the future. Among the Ghosts harnesses their own distinct sound, and at the same time, in a way unlike anything they've done before. The 10-song disc's title is both a tribute to the spirits which roam the streets of their fabled city, as well as the hard road the determinedly independent band set out on 20 years ago.
With a nod to his younger brother Jeff Nichols, an acclaimed filmmaker whose movies include Loving, Mud, Take Shelter, Midnight Special, and Shotgun Stories; Nichols has written songs that are cinematic short stories, steeped in Southern gothic lore. There are nods to regional authors like Flannery O'Connor and Faulkner, as well as newer writers like Larry Brown (Big Bad Love, Fay), Ron Rash (The Cove, The World Made Straight), and William Gay (The Long Home).
As the first album he's written since his marriage and the birth of his daughter Izzy, Nichols approached the task as a narrator rather than in first person. It's a dark palette that includes tales of a haunting ("Among the Ghosts"), a drowning ("Bottom of the Sea"), a reckoning with the devil ("Everything has Changed"), a divorce ("Always Been You"), and a shoot-out ("Cover Me"). And that's just Side A. Side B is a letter from a battlefield ("To My Dearest Wife"), a crime ("Long Way Back Home"), a straight-out rocker ("For the Lonely Ones"), and even a spooky spoken-word cameo from actor Michael Shannon, who has appeared in every one of Nichols' brother's films. The song's title "Back to the Night" references a line from Nick Tosches' Jerry Lee Lewis biography, Hellfire. In addition, there's a song Nichols wrote for his brother's movie Loving, which appeared in the film and on the soundtrack, re-recorded for Among the Ghosts with the whole band.
Among the Ghosts offers a timeless perspective on Lucero's distinctive sound. The lyrics could've been written 200 years ago or today. Representing a new South compared to the one that's been mythologized, Lucero have formulated their own ideas and culture, which, in some cases, contradicts what came before them, but also updates and reconsiders those traditions in a new light.
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It's been two decades since original members Ben Nichols, Brian Venable, Roy Berry, and John C. Stubblefield (keyboardist Rick Steff joined in 2006) started playing shows in Memphis. From their first set performing to six people to co-headlining Red Rocks Amphitheater, Lucero (meaning: morning star) shines bright on Among the Ghosts with lead singer Ben Nichols' bourbon-soaked growl now even more distinctive and commanding than ever. Among the Ghosts was recorded and co-produced with GRAMMY Award-winning engineer/producer and Memphis native Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Drive by Truckers) at the historic Sam Phillips Recording Service, the studio built by the legendary producer after outgrowing his Memphis Recording Service/Sun Studio.
Recorded primarily live as a five-piece, Among the Ghosts eschews the Stax-inspired horns and Jerry Lee Lewis-style boogie piano featured on some of the band's past recordings for a streamlined rock 'n' roll sound that pays homage to their seminal influences as it seeks to push that legacy into the future. Among the Ghosts harnesses their own distinct sound, and at the same time, in a way unlike anything they've done before. The 10-song disc's title is both a tribute to the spirits which roam the streets of their fabled city, as well as the hard road the determinedly independent band set out on 20 years ago.
With a nod to his younger brother Jeff Nichols, an acclaimed filmmaker whose movies include Loving, Mud, Take Shelter, Midnight Special, and Shotgun Stories; Nichols has written songs that are cinematic short stories, steeped in Southern gothic lore. There are nods to regional authors like Flannery O'Connor and Faulkner, as well as newer writers like Larry Brown (Big Bad Love, Fay), Ron Rash (The Cove, The World Made Straight), and William Gay (The Long Home).
As the first album he's written since his marriage and the birth of his daughter Izzy, Nichols approached the task as a narrator rather than in first person. It's a dark palette that includes tales of a haunting ("Among the Ghosts"), a drowning ("Bottom of the Sea"), a reckoning with the devil ("Everything has Changed"), a divorce ("Always Been You"), and a shoot-out ("Cover Me"). And that's just Side A. Side B is a letter from a battlefield ("To My Dearest Wife"), a crime ("Long Way Back Home"), a straight-out rocker ("For the Lonely Ones"), and even a spooky spoken-word cameo from actor Michael Shannon, who has appeared in every one of Nichols' brother's films. The song's title "Back to the Night" references a line from Nick Tosches' Jerry Lee Lewis biography, Hellfire. In addition, there's a song Nichols wrote for his brother's movie Loving, which appeared in the film and on the soundtrack, re-recorded for Among the Ghosts with the whole band.
Among the Ghosts offers a timeless perspective on Lucero's distinctive sound. The lyrics could've been written 200 years ago or today. Representing a new South compared to the one that's been mythologized, Lucero have formulated their own ideas and culture, which, in some cases, contradicts what came before them, but also updates and reconsiders those traditions in a new light.
Lucero is renowned as one of Memphis, Tennessee's forebears of Alt-Country music helping put the Americana genre on the national map with two decades of rigorous touring of over 200 shows a year. Leading up to the end of 2019, Lucero settles into the Sweetwater Music Hall for a three-night run from Friday, December 27 through Sunday, December 29, 2019. Lucero tours in support of their latest studio album, Among the Ghosts, now available via notable Nashville indie label Thirty Tigers.
It's been two decades since original members Ben Nichols, Brian Venable, Roy Berry, and John C. Stubblefield (keyboardist Rick Steff joined in 2006) started playing shows in Memphis. From their first set performing to six people to co-headlining Red Rocks Amphitheater, Lucero (meaning: morning star) shines bright on Among the Ghosts with lead singer Ben Nichols' bourbon-soaked growl now even more distinctive and commanding than ever. Among the Ghosts was recorded and co-produced with GRAMMY Award-winning engineer/producer and Memphis native Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Drive by Truckers) at the historic Sam Phillips Recording Service, the studio built by the legendary producer after outgrowing his Memphis Recording Service/Sun Studio.
Recorded primarily live as a five-piece, Among the Ghosts eschews the Stax-inspired horns and Jerry Lee Lewis-style boogie piano featured on some of the band's past recordings for a streamlined rock 'n' roll sound that pays homage to their seminal influences as it seeks to push that legacy into the future. Among the Ghosts harnesses their own distinct sound, and at the same time, in a way unlike anything they've done before. The 10-song disc's title is both a tribute to the spirits which roam the streets of their fabled city, as well as the hard road the determinedly independent band set out on 20 years ago.
With a nod to his younger brother Jeff Nichols, an acclaimed filmmaker whose movies include Loving, Mud, Take Shelter, Midnight Special, and Shotgun Stories; Nichols has written songs that are cinematic short stories, steeped in Southern gothic lore. There are nods to regional authors like Flannery O'Connor and Faulkner, as well as newer writers like Larry Brown (Big Bad Love, Fay), Ron Rash (The Cove, The World Made Straight), and William Gay (The Long Home).
As the first album he's written since his marriage and the birth of his daughter Izzy, Nichols approached the task as a narrator rather than in first person. It's a dark palette that includes tales of a haunting ("Among the Ghosts"), a drowning ("Bottom of the Sea"), a reckoning with the devil ("Everything has Changed"), a divorce ("Always Been You"), and a shoot-out ("Cover Me"). And that's just Side A. Side B is a letter from a battlefield ("To My Dearest Wife"), a crime ("Long Way Back Home"), a straight-out rocker ("For the Lonely Ones"), and even a spooky spoken-word cameo from actor Michael Shannon, who has appeared in every one of Nichols' brother's films. The song's title "Back to the Night" references a line from Nick Tosches' Jerry Lee Lewis biography, Hellfire. In addition, there's a song Nichols wrote for his brother's movie Loving, which appeared in the film and on the soundtrack, re-recorded for Among the Ghosts with the whole band.
Among the Ghosts offers a timeless perspective on Lucero's distinctive sound. The lyrics could've been written 200 years ago or today. Representing a new South compared to the one that's been mythologized, Lucero have formulated their own ideas and culture, which, in some cases, contradicts what came before them, but also updates and reconsiders those traditions in a new light.
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It's been two decades since original members Ben Nichols, Brian Venable, Roy Berry, and John C. Stubblefield (keyboardist Rick Steff joined in 2006) started playing shows in Memphis. From their first set performing to six people to co-headlining Red Rocks Amphitheater, Lucero (meaning: morning star) shines bright on Among the Ghosts with lead singer Ben Nichols' bourbon-soaked growl now even more distinctive and commanding than ever. Among the Ghosts was recorded and co-produced with GRAMMY Award-winning engineer/producer and Memphis native Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Drive by Truckers) at the historic Sam Phillips Recording Service, the studio built by the legendary producer after outgrowing his Memphis Recording Service/Sun Studio.
Recorded primarily live as a five-piece, Among the Ghosts eschews the Stax-inspired horns and Jerry Lee Lewis-style boogie piano featured on some of the band's past recordings for a streamlined rock 'n' roll sound that pays homage to their seminal influences as it seeks to push that legacy into the future. Among the Ghosts harnesses their own distinct sound, and at the same time, in a way unlike anything they've done before. The 10-song disc's title is both a tribute to the spirits which roam the streets of their fabled city, as well as the hard road the determinedly independent band set out on 20 years ago.
With a nod to his younger brother Jeff Nichols, an acclaimed filmmaker whose movies include Loving, Mud, Take Shelter, Midnight Special, and Shotgun Stories; Nichols has written songs that are cinematic short stories, steeped in Southern gothic lore. There are nods to regional authors like Flannery O'Connor and Faulkner, as well as newer writers like Larry Brown (Big Bad Love, Fay), Ron Rash (The Cove, The World Made Straight), and William Gay (The Long Home).
As the first album he's written since his marriage and the birth of his daughter Izzy, Nichols approached the task as a narrator rather than in first person. It's a dark palette that includes tales of a haunting ("Among the Ghosts"), a drowning ("Bottom of the Sea"), a reckoning with the devil ("Everything has Changed"), a divorce ("Always Been You"), and a shoot-out ("Cover Me"). And that's just Side A. Side B is a letter from a battlefield ("To My Dearest Wife"), a crime ("Long Way Back Home"), a straight-out rocker ("For the Lonely Ones"), and even a spooky spoken-word cameo from actor Michael Shannon, who has appeared in every one of Nichols' brother's films. The song's title "Back to the Night" references a line from Nick Tosches' Jerry Lee Lewis biography, Hellfire. In addition, there's a song Nichols wrote for his brother's movie Loving, which appeared in the film and on the soundtrack, re-recorded for Among the Ghosts with the whole band.
Among the Ghosts offers a timeless perspective on Lucero's distinctive sound. The lyrics could've been written 200 years ago or today. Representing a new South compared to the one that's been mythologized, Lucero have formulated their own ideas and culture, which, in some cases, contradicts what came before them, but also updates and reconsiders those traditions in a new light.
show less
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