Lucero Plan 10th Album “Where You Found Me”

photo: Bob Bayne

Wildly-influential alt-rock band Lucero will be releasing their 10th album on January 29th, 2021 called Where You Found Me through their own label Liberty and Lament, distributed by Thirty Tigers. The first single from the album called “Outrun The Moon” has just been released (listen below).

You’ll be hard pressed to find a songwriter in alt-country and Americana who doesn’t say Lucero and frontman Ben Nichols is not a significant influence on them. Where You Found Me finds Ben Nichols continuing to mature in his perspective after the birth of his daughter Izzy (now 4-years-old), and also dabbling a little bit with old-school synthesizers in parts.

“I wanted a very classic rock sound for this album,” says Ben Nichols. “I wanted it to sound like stuff I heard on the radio growing up. I didn’t want to make a retro record at all, but I did want to reference some of those sounds and tones and moods. I think we struck a nice balance between nostalgia and something that still sounds like contemporary Lucero.”

Lucero recorded When You Found Me over two weeks in July of 2020 at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis. They all wore masks and worked in a “bubble” scenario to help avoid any COVID-19 entanglements. The band hadn’t played together since the beginning of the pandemic. Well-known producer Matt Ross-Spang, who also produced Lucero’s 2018 album Among The Ghosts, signed on again as producer and engineer.

“I’m not sure how much longer I would’ve been around if it wasn’t for my wife and daughter and the family I have now,” Nichols says. “I feel like they saved me, and they keep saving me every day. Izzy likes me to sing “When You Found Me” to her now at bedtime after we read the fairytales. She says, ‘Sing me the I’m gonna be okay song.’”

The lineup for Lucero currently consists of Nichols, Brian Venable on guitar, Rick Steff on keys, John C. Stubblefield on bass, and Roy Berry on drums. Ben says he fleshed out most of the songs on more involved demo recordings compared to previous records. “The band did an excellent job of taking those parts and making them their own,” he says, while producer Matt Ross-Spang was “…able to get all the sounds we wanted on the album while making sure we stayed true to ourselves.”

Where You Found Me is now available for pre-order.

Tracklist
1. Have You Lost Your Way?
2. Outrun The Moon
3. Coffin Nails
4. Pull Me Close, Don’t Let Go
5. Good As Gone
6. All My Life
7. Good As Gone
8. Back in Ohio
9. A City on Fire
10: When You Found Me

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