Ben Nichols

Ben Nichols handles vocals, songwriting, and guitar as the central figure in Lucero, the Memphis-based alt-country ensemble. The outfit assembled toward the end of the 1990s and, beginning in 2001, has issued roughly six albums that have each received acclaim for the ensemble’s raw, grounded, and near-punk take on country-rock together with Nichols’ raspy, deeply felt vocal approach.

Outside his work with Lucero, Nichols pursued recordings built primarily around acoustic instrumentation. The result was a 2009 EP issued on Liberty & Lament Records under his own name that presented a lean three-piece lineup of Nichols on acoustic guitar, Rick Steff (Cat Power) on accordion and piano, and Todd Beene (Glossary) on pedal steel and electric guitar.

Carrying the title The Last Pale Light in the West, the seven-track release draws every song from characters and incidents in Cormac McCarthy’s novel Blood Meridian.