Read More Here — Ben Nichols' busy days
January 23rd, 2009 at 6:03 am
Lucero
The boys of Lucero are no stranger to Fayetteville.
And they’re coming back. The Memphis-based band will perform tonight (Jan. 23) at George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville.
Lead singer and Little Rock native Ben Nichols recently chatted with the Northwest Arkansas Times, offering a status report of sorts about his band and his NUMEROUS projects.
Read more about that here. For exclusive content, which wouldn’t fit in our newspaper story, click the ‘more’ link below.
The concert begins at 9:30 p.m. Songwriter Cory Branan opens. Tickets are $13 and available on the venue’s Web site.
We’ll see you at the show.
Remember when we said Nichols was involved NUMEROUS projects:
To wit, Nichols in the past year has:
1) Appeared as a guest vocalist on The Hold Steady’s excellent new album “Stay Positive.”
It just sort of happened, Nichols said. He was in New York, where The Hold Steady record was recorded, on a brief solo tour. He stopped by the studio to see his friends, and all of the sudden he was singing on the album. He appears on three tracks, one of which, fittingly for a man who lives in that town, is “Sequestered in Memphis.”
2) Created and released a solo recording, “The Last Pale Light In The West.”
The seven-song collection, released Jan. 20, is based on Cormac McCarthy‘s “Blood Meridian.” Nichols considers himself a big fan of the author, having read the rather lengthy Border Trilogy (“All The Pretty Horses,” “Cities of the Plain” and “The Crossing,”) “No Country For Old Men,” “The Road” and “Blood Meridian.” McCarthy, though bleak, offers glimpses of hope in his prose, Nichols said of one of this post’s author’s favorite novelists.
3) Filmed segments for an upcoming Webisode series on MTV called “$5 Cover.”
The series is produced by Memphis filmographer Craig Brewer, who did “Hustle & Flow” and “Black Snake Moan.” The series, produced by MTV, will debut in March. The show is a psuedo-reality show that shows the music scene in Memphis, and Nichols plays a fictionalized version of himself as a character named Ben. Nichols said Brewer has long been a fan of Lucero’s music.
4) And, thankfully, recorded some music with Lucero.
There are 18 demo tracks that exist right now and the band is getting ready to tweak them further. Nichols said the tracks are more-rock oriented than some of the group’s previous work, which delved into punk and country like some strange hybridization of Johnny Cash and Social Distortion. However, the new album might also include tracks written during the “Tennessee” era, the album the band created in 2002. Nichols expects to play a few of the new tracks in Fayetteville. It will be the group’s first album for a major label, having signed with Universal Music Group late last year. If things go well, the album might be available by September, Nichols said.
Despite everything he and his band have going for them, Nichols said he doesn’t necessarily believe his band is poised for superstardom.
“I hope so. If we can get a few more people through the show, that would be nice,” he said. “I’m kind of pessimistic. We’ll see how big a difference it makes.”
Lucero promises to do some new songs, but expect some older stuff such as “Sixteen,” below, as well.
