November 2024
“I don’t think any of us thought we’d still be dong this, especially with the same original members, 25 years later!”
Ben Nichols, vocalist and guitar player of the alt country band Lucero, is reflecting on some recent festivals where bands who formed after Lucero was already well into releasing music – the group’s first studio album, “The Attic Tapes” came out in 2000 – and broke up years ago are now reuniting.
“Part of me is like maybe we should’ve done the same thing,” Nichols laughs. “I think our manager is like, ‘take a break, let people miss you for a little while!‘ After 25 years we’re still making it up as we go along. The band’s feeling is maybe it’ll last, maybe it won’t. But we’ve been saying that for 25 years and we’re just still having fun!”
The Memphis, Tennessee band’s most recent recording, 2023’s “Should’ve Learned By Now”, mixes americana influenced rock that seems to toe the line between crisp production and just the right amount of rough-around-the-edges barroom nights while Nichols’ whiskey gruff vocals spin yarns of life’s challenges and ironies befalling a number of characters.
“It’s not quite as dramatic as it was in my younger years,” Nichols explains of his songwriting on the group’s more recently penned songs. “When I first started the band, there was a lot of long nights where it seemed like life or death. It was life or death if this relationship ended, or if this relationship never started. Personal stuff was so intertwined with the songwriting process that it was intense.”
While the emotional tumultuousness of the band’s recent work has noticeably tempered from songs such as “Watch It Burn” or “Noon As Dark As Midnight” from their earlier albums, Nichols explains that on a personal level, the growth between the two has afforded him the ability to zero in on and refine songwriting as a craft.
“Now that I’m older, I see that you don’t have to kill yourself every night one way or another to write a good song. I’ve really enjoyed that over the years, trying to write from outside perspectives, from different people’s perspectives.”
Though when asked, Nichols quickly emphasizes his fondness for the band’s older material.
“I still love the old songs. They still resonate with me. I still love playing them!”
Lucero is on their way west on their current tour. Having spent his childhood in Arkansas, and having lived in Memphis throughout the band’s 25 year tenure, Nichols mentions that he finds a certain romance in heading westward on the group’s near constant touring.
“We’ve been lucky to play so many places, but I have a soft space for going out west. It’s very pretty country out there – once you get out into the desert and the mountains, and then to the coast. I always felt like it was a good place for storytelling. You know, you got your John Steinbeck in Northern California, your Bukowski in Southern California. It’s made me want to write songs.”
Nichols also mentions the pleasure he gets from his downtime. He takes those opportunities to spend time with his daughter, and mentions being a big reader. At the moment, he’s talking about a writer named John Horner Jacobs, a recent discovery of his despite learning that the author comes from the same Arkansas town as him. Though when all is said and done, Nichols expresses that ultimately the reason that the band has stayed together for a quarter century now, and continue to record and tour, is that they each love what they’re doing.
“There’s still something that I get from going out on the road and playing these songs that I just can’t get any other way!”
Lucero will be performing with support from The Vandoliers at the Crystal Bay Casino’s Crown Room on Friday, November 15th. Tickets are available here.
