Category: News
Album Review: The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
We pay extra attention when something comes out from our hometown of Memphis. This article is definitely worth a quick read:
Article Link: http://www.commercialappeal.com/topstories/listening-log-new-local-album-from-lucero
“All a Man Should Do”
(ATO Records)
Available today (Sept. 18), Lucero’s “All a Man Should Do” is the veteran Memphis band’s ninth full-length studio album in a career that’s now pushing toward a second full decade. And it feels like it represents a transition, or maybe a culmination of one begun with the band’s previous collection of new material, the acoustic-inflected 2013 EP “Texas & Tennessee.”
The addition of multi-instrumental ace Rick Steff on 2006’s “Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers” inaugurated a three-album cycle where Lucero transformed from an alt-country bar band to a more expansive, all-encompassing Southern roots band, with piano, horns, pedal steel and more. But “All a Man Should Do” feels almost like a response to that album’s title and the boozy romanticism that was required for alt-countryish bands of Lucero’s era.
Thematically, the new album is almost a straight line, from yet another busted-hearted musical break-up for frontman Ben Nichols (“Baby Don’t You Want Me”) into a new relationship whose contentment feels more profound, rendering past love songs’ depictions of romance, lust and infatuation into a kind prelude. If you thought Nichols had worked all the love song angles already, the gentle, soul-rooted “Throwback No. 2” opens a new door: “Let’s write it in the sky/We’ll make my mother cry/Come on now marry me.”
“All a Man Should Do” isn’t a sobriety album on the order of Jason Isbell’s recent “Southeastern,” but it is something of a sobering up, settling down album. “The Man I Was” (“None of those young girls could understand/How slowly killing oneself takes a toll on a man”) and “I Woke Up in New Orleans” (“I couldn’t out drink anyone for nothing/But I’d act like it till I puked or passed out”) take direct aim at a hard-partying past. Meanwhile “Young Outlaws,” with its sardonic Marshall Tucker Band-referencing intro, is a celebratory goodbye to a rowdy times (“Tell all the young outlaws/I’m hanging up my guns/I’m not taking the fall”) that has a naming-names specificity that feels deeper than artistic license.
This third straight album recorded locally at Ardent — the title comes from Big Star’s “I’m in Love With a Girl,” covered here as both label/hometown tribute and thematic master statement — sounds like it could have been a major radio record 25 years ago, sharing time with U2 and Tom Petty on playlists in an era where rootsy, adult rock music still counted as Top 40 material.
I’ve followed Lucero since close to the band’s beginning, and have marveled in recent years at the musical command they’ve developed. At first blush, “All a Man Should Do” sounds like a step back. But what’s unusual about it is that it’s at once perhaps the band’s most studio-polished album and its most relaxed. All of the elements that have expanded the band’s sound in recent years are still there, but those flourishes don’t announce themselves as fully. They aren’t even flourishes, but now just embedded deeply in the band’s sound, which is dense and rich in a way that doesn’t really grab you on a first listen but is durable. Kind of like the brand of romantic contentment these songs pursue. — Chris Herrington
Get The Album!:
-On Amazon: http://smarturl.it/lucero_amazon
-On iTunes: http://smarturl.it/Lucero_iTunes
-On Lucero Merchstore : hyperurl.co/jeve55
Thoughts From Hearya.com About Our New Album
We really like this review from Hearya.com. Thanks for the nice words, Woody.
Article Link:
http://www.hearya.com/2015/09/16/lucero-all-a-man-should-do-album-review/
I tire of hearing of fans complain about a band’s new output. This isn’t is as good as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or It Still Moves, or in Lucero’s case – Tennessee. As long as band stays true to themselves and doesn’t become a caricature of themselves while selling out, I enjoy watching the progression. Let’s call that the Robert Plant vs. Mick Jagger dynamic. And while certain efforts might warrant more praise than others, I wouldn’t want the band to just spend the rest of their days trying to recreate something that can’t be recreated.
All that leads me to Lucero’s latest effort, All A Man Should Do – a title that comes from a lyric in Big Star’s legendary track, I’m In Love With A Girl. A track that Lucero covers on the album, with Big Star’s Jody Stephens lending some background vocals to boot. Over the last two albums, Lucero has really explored the Memphis soul sound with horn accompaniments that for the most part lent the music a fresh new sound, almost becoming a rock ‘n’ soul revue. For All A Man Should Do, the horns were toned down a bit and the melodies were emphasized.
The album consists of 10 track of mid-tempo rock that feels like it should be played live while the band all sit on stools. And while it may lack some of the bite of Lucero’s earlier stuff, it is in no way lacking in quality. And holding it all together is the whiskey-soaked rasp of Ben Nichols. Nichols’ vocals have always been the voice of an old soul and on an album that seems to be full of reflective moments, he couldn’t sound any better.
The first half of the album is the storm, the difficult times in Nichols’ life. Lead single, Went Looking For Warren Zevon’s Los Angeles seems to be a trail looking back at some of life’s decisions that took you from home looking for change and adventure, but in the end you realize that home is where you belong. A couple tracks later a ballad, I Woke Up In New Orleans, is built around Rick Sheff’s piano. It is beautiful song full of regret, complete with a subtle mournful horn section.
The latter part of the album represents the rising, including the Big Star cover which is fantastic. They Called Her Killer sounds like a fleshed out tune off the excellent Ben Nichols EP, The Last Pale Night In The West, where the protagonist finds himself head over heels for a new love. And the closer, Me & My Girl in ’93 looks back at a time in life where love seemed so much similar; “its us against the world.”
Lucero entered into that warm blanket phase a few years ago. By that I mean that they became one of those bands that I equated to a safe haven – never disappointing and always enjoyable. I look forward to their new releases and tour. Will they ever reach the pinnacle of This Mountain / Sing Me No Hymns / The Weight of Guilt (a better three song run I don’t know)? I can’t answer that question but they will always have a place carved out in my soul. And for that I am thankful.
Follow me on Twitter at @WoodyHearYa or @HearYa
Lucero is here
Slant Magazine: ‘All A Man Should Do’ Review
Nashville is such a musical mecca that it’s easy to forget the city lying about 200 miles west not only has better BBQ, but is home to one of the richest musical legacies of the 20th century. From W.C. Handy to Big Star to Three 6 Mafia, Memphis has birthed some of the most important artists in the history of pop music. If there’s a single band doing its best to carry the torch and embody (almost) all of those strains of Memphis music today, it’s Lucero. Over the better part of two decades, they’ve excelled at everything from tear-in-your-beer twang to straight-up Memphis soul, a range made cohesive by frontman Ben Nichols’s whiskey-soaked rasp and hard-drinking-ramblin’-man vulnerability. And on their eighth album, All a Man Should Do, they encapsulate a broader purview of Memphis’s influence, and their own stylistic capabilities as a band, than ever before.
The album includes a cover of Memphis power-pop band Big Star’s classic “I’m In Love with a Girl” (the album’s title comes from a lyric in the song), and Lucero recruited the band’s drummer, Jody Stephens, to sing backing vocals to boot. Lucero’s full-band arrangement nicely fills in the gaps of the acoustic original, even if Nichols’s vocals, pitched an octave lower than Alex Chilton’s high wail, don’t quite measure up. There’s a poppier underpinning to many of these songs, expressed through electric keyboards and unexpectedly hummable vocal melodies, to songs like “They Called Her Killer” and especially lead single “Went Looking for Warren Zevon’s Los Angeles,” on which Nichols’s double-tracked vocal hook, rueful-sounding though it may be, proves to be possibly his catchiest earworm to date.
But these forays into greater melodicism don’t come at the expense of Lucero’s identity as heavily tattooed brawlers and balladeers. All a Man Should Do retains the big-band Memphis-soul instrumentation that defined their last two albums, namely a horn section and Rick Steff’s honky tonk piano, while at times returning to a style of songwriting guitarist Brian Venable calls “cowboy emo.” For a band that, for the last few years, has seemingly taken great pains to transcend their alt-country roots, it’s a bit surprising to find that the new album begins with a song (“Baby Don’t You Want Me”) that would have fit comfortably on 2002’s Tennessee. The band successfully melds its past and present, maintaining an emotional pathos without sacrificing the musicality that’s come to define much of their recent work. The renewed preponderance of slow, sad songs may mean that much of the album lacks the high-watt adrenaline of their last couple of efforts, but the downbeat style suits Nichols’s lyrics, which are particularly vulnerable this time around. Years of singing about women who broke his heart and drinking the pain away seem to be taking their toll. “It’s too late to change the path I chose,” Nichols croons mournfully on the quavering “I Woke Up in New Orleans.”
On the album’s second half, however, Nichols quits wallowing in regret and elects to do something about it. Midway through the album’s most soul-influenced song, “Throwback No. 2,” the track becomes more upbeat and Nichols begins entreating a girl to marry him. Complete with pounding Wurlitzer and a fantastic, emotive sax solo by longtime Memphis session man Jim Spake, this section of the song is one of the album’s most musically exhilarating passages. And considering the way Nichols usually sings about girls, his pleas are almost as shocking as it would be to hear James Taylor unleash a violent torrent of gangsta rap. Even on an album full of obvious nods to music of the past, Lucero manages to surprise.
AV Club Album Review
Feedback on our new album, ALL A Man Should Do has been really great so far… Check out this insightful review from AV Club:
http://www.avclub.com/review/lucero-makes-another-assured-memphis-rooted-record-224995
Album Purchase: https://lucero.merchtable.com/
The title of All A Man Should Do comes from the Big Star song “I’m In Love With A Girl,” which is covered on the album. (Which raises another question: How has it taken this long for Lucero to record a Big Star cover?) The version here expands on Alex Chilton’s acoustic take, adding drums, piano, background singers, and twangy guitar. It also features back-up vocals by Big Star’s Jody Stephens, and, like the original, was recorded in Memphis’ Ardent Studios. In way, “I’m In Love With A Girl” is a bookend for “Went Looking For Warren Zevon’s Los Angeles,” clarifying that being a Memphis band comes with its own legacies and opportunities.
“I’m In Love With A Girl” is also one of only three songs on this 1o-song album that clocks in under four minutes. From the five-minute, midtempo opener “Baby Don’t You Want Me” on, All A Man Should Do frames a mellower Lucero: one that trucks along steadily rather than rushing in and out. Aside from the Rolling Stones-influenced “Can’t You Hear Them Howl,” and the fast and funky “Young Outlaws”—two of the few songs that sport the horns that have been a big part of the recent Lucero sound—this is a record that takes its time, relying a lot on Rick Steff’s piano and organ to color in between the music’s straight lines.
That’s not to say that Nichols avoids hooks, or that the songs don’t still stick in the head. But All A Man Should Do tends to dwell on minutiae rather than stacking up big ideas or power chords. It’s filled with slight, sweet, backward-facing vignettes like “I Woke Up In New Orleans” and “My Girl & Me In ’93,” which speak plainly and soulfully about what it’s like to be middle-aged and on the move—taking in the sights while pining for home.
Album Stream: ‘All A Man Should Do’
‘All A Man Should Do’ is available to stream! Big thanks to Paste Magazine for the article!
“Lucero has built a sturdy and emphatic following over the years, thanks largely to their raucous live shows and strong storytelling. This week, the band is set to release All A Man Should Do, their full-length and first studio release since 2012’sWomen and Work.
“I’m not sure if it was a conscience effort or [if it] just happened, but we’ve been wanting to get back to the older prettier sound,” said guitarist Brian Venable of the more acoustic direction the band has taken in this latest effort. The record was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis with producer Ted Hutt, who worked with the band on their previous two records and has also produced albums for Flogging Molly and Old Crow Medicine Show.
“I like the ideas of trilogies,” said Venable. “Once we break in a producer and learn how each other communicate, it becomes easier to work together.”
While an impressive collection of new original numbers on the album showcase Ben Nichols’ continued growth as a songwriter, All A Man Should Do also includes Big Star cover “I’m In Love With a Girl,” featuring Big Star drummer Jody Stephens.
“We are part of Memphis, and they are definitely a part of Memphis history,” said Venable. “We had never done a cover song on a record before, and it just seemed to make sense—especially with the sounds we were experimenting with on the new record. Jody was stoked to be apart of it. Recording at Ardent, he was always poking his head in to listen and say hey.””
If you like what you hear, pre-order our album:
-On Amazon: http://smarturl.it/lucero_amazon
-On iTunes: http://smarturl.it/Lucero_iTunes
-On Lucero Merchstore : hyperurl.co/jeve55
#luceroallamanshoulddo
BrooklynVegan Interview
Ben recently caught up with BrooklynVegan writer Andrew Sacher for a interview that covers a ton of ground; including some details about the new album set to release Sept 18th. Check it out here or below.
Lucero will release their new album All A Man Should Do on September 18 via ATO. After two of the band’s biggest-sounding horn-filled records, much of the new one sees them returning to a softer sound. It’s actually the first album in their 15+ year career where frontman Ben Nichols played acoustic guitar. We already posted first single “Went Looking For Warren Zevon’s Los Angeles,” which is a great example of that softer/acoustic sound, though new single “Can’t You Hear Them Howl” brings the horns back and more closely recalls the last two records. Listen to that one below.
I recently spoke with Ben about the new record, their upcoming Sailor Jerry-presented tour, looking back on lyrics he wrote 15 years ago, True Detective, the unlikely Lucero sample A$AP Rocky used on his new album, and more. You can read that interview below.
The band’s tour hits NYC on October 8 at Webster Hall. Tickets for that show are still available.
BV: Your last two full lengths were these big-sounding records with a lot of horns, a lot of rowdy songs. Not that the horns are gone on the new one, but it feels more focused on returning to more somber songs, more acoustic guitars — something you hinted at on the Texas & Tennessee EP. What pushed the songwriting in that direction?
Ben Nichols: Bad relationships. Unhealthy Lifestyles. Ha. But also a desire to do something different than the last two albums. We covered that ground pretty thoroughly and I think we did a fine job of it and now it is time to push ourselves in another direction. A direction that combines what we learned on the last two records with a type of songwriting that is maybe more like some of our earlier stuff.
Including that EP, it’s your third studio release in a row with ATO Records, which if I’m not mistaken, is the longest run of releases you’ve had on a label outside of your own Liberty & Lament. I take it Lucero and ATO continue to work well together?
We actually recorded and released the Texas & Tennessee EP ourselves on Liberty & Lament, outside of the deal with ATO. They’ve been super cool about letting us do projects that aren’t necessarily part of our deal with them. And yes, I think Lucero and ATO do work well together. It’s nice to finally feel like we have a home label-wise. I’m really looking forward to this new release with them.
It seems like the new record’s softer sound was a long time coming. Lucero’s last time in New York was three nights that each had an acoustic set and an electric set, and after that you came back with Rick Steff for a stripped-down duo set. What do you have in the works for your upcoming headlining tour?
We are using that same show-model for the entire Fall Tour. We will be doing two sets each night, one acoustic and stripped down and one electric and rowdy. No opening act. We decided that with so many softer songs to incorporate into the set we wanted to be able to set the pace of the whole night. With no opener we can start as delicately and intimately as we want to. We still have to figure out which songs from All A Man Should Dogo in the first set and which ones go in the second set, but I’m very much looking forward to playing them.
That tour is being presented by Sailor Jerry. A liquor and tattoo company sounds like a pretty perfect match for Lucero, especially more than like, an energy drink sponsor or something. Has there been any kind of creative collaboration between the band and Sailor Jerry for the tour?
We spent a day recently recording at Royal Studios in Memphis (of Willie Mitchell and Al Green fame) and maybe we can use what we did there for a little something special with Sailor Jerry but I can’t give any specifics at the moment. I’m always getting in trouble one way or another saying shit at the wrong times. And I’m not sure what I can and can’t say. But I know we are very happy to be working with Sailor Jerry. Our buddy Oliver Peck has worked with them a lot in the past and they all seem like good folks to be involved with. You’re right… booze and tattoos… good match for Lucero.
So that place you and Rick played, The Shop, is actually a new venue with the unique goal of bringing together a BBQ restuarant and an active motorcycle garage. I know Lucero does their own big family picnic show with a BBQ, and you’ve also done solo tours on a motorcycle, so that seemed like yet another perfect match. What did you think of the place?
I loved The Shop. Excellent people and excellent food. I have a feeling I’ll be in there again eventually. That was a fun show. Don’t know if I’ll ever get up there on a motorcycle tour though. New York City traffic scares the hell out of me. If I’m on the bike I think I’ll stick to the wide open spaces out west and down south.
Do you have a favorite place to play in NYC?
The Bowery Ballroom is a special place. Lucero has had some of our best shows and some of our… more turbulent shows there. They still welcome us back. Ha. It’s the perfect size and the sound is great and I like the bar downstairs. We always have a blast at Brooklyn Bowl though too…
Something that’s always interested me about Lucero is that no matter what your current album sounds like, you manage to keep a foot in the punk scene. This summer you’re playing Social Distortion’s big Philly show to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their self-titled album. I know you’ve toured with and actually collaborated with those guys before. Any wild stories from being on the road with them?
Hmmm. Wild stories? Not so much. But I can tell you that it is a pretty fucking surreal thing to have MIKE NESS ask if he can interview YOU. We sat down with him backstage at Roseland Ballroom and we talked for a while until we had to go soundcheck. It was a really nice compliment, him asking us to do that. That tour was huge for us. And it was really cool looking over and seeing the Social Distortion guys watching our set from the wings almost every night.
You’ve always been more punk by association than by adhering to its traditional sounds (which one might argue is actually a pretty punk thing to do). Are punk’s ethics something you still think about as a veteran musician in 2015?
Definitely. Although you have a point in that our version of punk might be our own. We are still doing things the exact same way we’ve done them since the beginning. We can play as slow or as fast as we want. We get to play to a bazillion different types of people. We can play shows with almost any style of other bands. There aren’t any rules. We do it on our own terms. For better or for worse (often worse) but hell… it’s the same four original members. That alone makes me pretty proud.
One part of the new album that stands out to me is the song “The Man I Was.” I could be reading into it entirely wrong, but it feels like you’re telling us the listeners not to expect the same person who started this band over 15 years ago. I recently watched a live video of you playing “My Best Girl” where you interrupted yourself during the line “The only girl a boy can trust is his guitar” to say “I was 22 when I wrote that, it’s a little bit stupid, I didn’t really mean that.” How often do you find yourself playing old songs and thinking about how you currently translate them with the perspective you’ve gained over the years?
Oh all the time. Luckily everything I sing every night is still important to me. I get the same knots in my stomach and the same anger and the same pain and the same rock and roll fuck yeah. That “My Best Girl” line is a little cheesy… but I remember exactly where I was when I wrote it and I have no choice but to stand by that kid. Luckily I’m not stuck having to write that same song over and over. Now I get to write new ones. But the old ones are still what they are. And I still love getting to sing them. It’s like tattoos. Some of the old ones might not be exactly what you might choose to get today… but covering them up would seem like cheating. And “The Man I Was” might be ending up as my personal favorite on the new record. We will have to see how it goes live.
You’ve also got a cover of Big Star’s “I’m In Love With A Girl” on the album, with an appearance from Big Star member Jody Stephens, and the album title comes from that song too. How did their influence play into the writing for this record?
With the last two albums we had gone deeper and deeper into our Memphis roots and influences. We had the Sun Studios boogie piano and the Stax Records B-3 organ and the horns. We had a blast. With the new record it was time to focus on other influences. This is the only album I’ve played only acoustic guitar on. So right from the start it was going to have a more subdued sound and a lighter touch. That happened to fit the mood of the songs I was writing. And the Big Star cover fit in there perfectly. I’ve said in other interviews that this was the record the 15 year old Ben would’ve loved to have recorded in 1989. A lot of what I was listening to way back then influenced this record. And “I’m in Love With a Girl” has that same innocence and that same feel. AND there was no way we were going to pass up the opportunity of having Jody [Stephens] and Ken [Stringfellow] and Jon [Auer] do harmony parts. They were all in town and we made it work somehow and the result is unlike anything on any other Lucero record.
Even though the new album is a clear progression, it’s still very much a Lucero album. I think that’s great, especially for longtime fans, but as a songwriter do you ever get the urge to do something wildly different? Like make an electronic record or a heavy metal record or something?
Oh yeah. It’s all in the works. Might not come out anytime soon but there’s a lot I want to do. Solo acoustic/electronic record, side project garage rock band, screenplay for my little brother, self published graphic novel… Man I’d be a bad ass if i didn’t have all these True Detective episodes to catch up on. (I think I’m one of the few people that actually LIKES Season 2)
Speaking of much different genres, something I did not expect to happen at all this year was when A$AP Rocky sampled Lucero’s “Noon As Dark As Midnight” on “Holy Ghost” off his new album… but it works! What can you tell me about that?
I never saw that coming. But that has to be one of the coolest things to happen to Lucero ever. It’s just fucking sweet. It’s a great guitar line and it fits perfectly in that song. The story I heard was that Danger Mouse heard the song in a bar and Soundhounded it or whatever and tracked it down. That is just a rumor I heard. Have no idea how it actually came about. But it’s still a huge compliment for us. I’d love it if more things like that came up in the future. I figure we need to work “Noon As Dark As Midnight” back into the set for the Fall Tour.
You can pre-order ‘All A Man Should Do’ here:
iTunes Pre-Order: http://smarturl.it/Lucero_iTunes
Official Pre-Order: http://smarturl.it/Lucero_Website
Can’t You Hear Them Howl Teaser Alert
[Teaser Alert] Tomorrow our friends at Noisey will be premiering the new track ‘Can’t You Hear Them Howl’ from our forthcoming album ‘All A Man Should Do’. The new album will release on Sept 18th via ATO Records.
PRE-ORDER here : http://smarturl.it/Lucero_
Lucero to headline Red Rocks Amphitheater!!
Hey Colorado, our friends at Illegal Pete’s asked us to headline their 20th anniversary party at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre on Sept 6, 2015!! Also playing with us… Built to Spill and more!
Fanclub tix available now – http://hyperurl.co/v9dbl6 (
Sailor Jerry Presents : An Evening with LUCERO tour
Sailor Jerry Presents : An Evening with LUCERO tour
Fanclub Tickets Available Now
Oct 1 – Cannery Ballroom – Nashville, TN
Oct 2- Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA
Oct 3- Grove at Patriot’s Point – Mount Pleasant, SC
Oct 4 – Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC
Oct 5 – Jefferson Theater – Charlottsville, VA Oct 7 – Union Transfer- Philadelphia, PA
Oct 8 – Webster Hall – New York, NY
Oct 9 – Royale – Boston, MA
Oct 10- Port City Music Hall – Portland, ME
Oct 11- 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
Oct 14- Mr Smalls Theatre – Millvale, PA
Oct 15 & 16- Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON
Oct 17 – St Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI
Oct 20 – Englert Theatre – Iowa City, IA
Oct 21 – First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
Oct 22 – Turner Hall – Milwaukee, WI
Oct 23 – Metro – Chicago, IL
Oct 24 – The Bluebird – Bloomington, IN
Nov 10 – Cain’s Ballroom – Tulsa, OK Nov 11 – Slowdown – Omaha, NE Nov 12 – Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO Nov 13 – Aggie Theatre – Fort Collins, CO
Nov 14 & 15 – The State Room – SLC, UT
Nov 17 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA
Nov 18 – Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR
Nov 20 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
Nov 21 – El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Nov 23 – Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ Dec 2 – Fire Betty’s Arcade Bar – Tallahassee, FL
Dec 3 – Ponte Vedra Concert Hall – Ponte Vedra, FL
Dec 4 – The Social – Orlando, FL
Dec 5 – The Ritz Ybor – Tampa, FL
Dec 6 – Culture Room – Ft Lauderdale, FL
Dec 8 – Music Farm – Charleston, SC
Dec 10 – Duling Hall – Jackson, MS
Dec 11 – ACL Live – Austin, TX
Dec 12 – Numbers – Houston, TX
Dec 13 – Southside Music Hall – Dallas, TX
Dec 15 – Vinyl Music Hall – Pensacola, FL
Dec 16 – Tipitina’s – New Orleans, LA