June Update from Ben | Lucero

June Update from Ben

Hey everybody. This is Ben. Just got home from the west coast leg of the tour. We’re run ragged. Figured I’d write a little something to let everybody know we made it home alive once again.

Man o man… where to begin. We wrapped up recording at Ardent at four in the morning and left for St. Louis at 11am April 9th. Damn that seems like forever ago. We have to thank the Titus boys for doing the east coast with us. All the shows were pretty solid and all the crowds were really nice to us. Had a day off in D.C. and I went by Walter Reed hospital for a bit. There had been a few guys at the show the night before who were staying there and they invited me out. There’s some really brave guys there. Most the guys I met had no idea who the hell I was of course, much less what the hell I was doing there, but it was an experience I couldn’t pass up.

Went home for a few days and added some final touches to the recording before we headed west. Hooked up with Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears in Houston. They were with us for over two weeks and they were a blast. Great band from Austin. Old school R&B stuff played by these young kids with bad ass style. We got along with them real well. And they had horns! Gotta get us some of those. Speaking of Austin, it’s always been one of my favorite towns to play and this show was another fun one. Got to thank everybody that came out, I think it was the biggest show we’ve played outside of festivals. So thanks everybody for putting up with the heat.

Yup. Houston and Austin were brutally hot. Started getting sick in Ft. Worth and my voice was gone by Lubbock. Sorry bout that one. Ha. There’s a few shows in our history that are infamous (anybody remember Boston with the Weakerthans?) for their… what would ya call it… train wreck qualities. Lubbock was one of em. Luckily the voice started to come back and the only other show I dropped the ball on was Solona Beach. Ever had a bad day at work? Well I had one that night. Ouch. Good part about this job is there is always next time. San Diego’s always been great to Lucero and I’ll make it up to ya’ll next time we’re in town. Wouldn’t be Lucero if there wasn’t a chance of us derailing. But like I said the other shows over the next three weeks were pretty solid and just fun as hell. It was real nice to get back to Vancouver again. We’ll need to play Canada some more for sure. Played on top of a mountain in Colorado. I’m sure there’s pictures out there somewhere. Got to see a lot of beutiful country on this run.

Hooked up with Chuck Ragan and John Gaunt for the last week and a half of the run. Always good seeing Chuck. Ever since I met him and John, and especially after I did the Revival Tour with em, they’ve been like family. I think Chuck’s gonna do that Revival thing again. Might be too busy to make it this year, but I’ll be back the next year for sure. Hell, we’ve talked about all of Lucero going out on the Revival Tour some time. We’ll see what happens.

Finished up with Elvis Fest in Tupelo and Wakarusa in Arkansas. It was nice to be back in the South. Now I’m hearing the final mixes of the new record and they’re sounding pretty damn good thanks to Tedd Hutt our producer. Hopefully everything stays on schedule and this thing’ll come out in October. Hopefully. Got a brand new song on there that we haven’t played live yet called "Mom". Heard it for the first time last night. I’m just real excited about it.

So that’s probably too much detail, but I figured I’d chime in. I ain’t on the computer very much, don’t have the patience for it. But thank ya’ll for having the patience to read this and stick with us. I have to say getting to meet all these great folks at our shows is really an honor. We appreciate all of ya.

take care out there. -Ben