Turnpike Troubadours und Lucero

The band formed in 1998 in Memphis, Tennessee, US (a city highly revered for its musical heritage) and took their name from the Spanish word meaning “Bright Star”. Lucero started playing shows within a year of it’s formation and since 2001 they have built a reputation for themselves, playing an average of over a 100 shows a year across Canada and the United States. Lucero consists of the band’s founder and frontman Ben Nichols, drummer Roy Berry, bassist John C. Stubblefield, and guitarist Brian Venable.

The group released their first single on the Landmark label before putting out their self-titled studio debut through Madjack in 2001. To some extent the band modeled themselves after indie folk band Ida, but added a more jagged edge to their sound coming off sounding more like the Replacements. This was often a go-to comparison for critics when discussing the group’s heavily lauded 2002 album “Tennessee”. Following the success of this release the band moved to the label Tiger Style and issued their 2003 studio album “That Much Further West”. This effort garnered even more positive attention than their previous release and ended up on Rolling Stone’s Hot List. “That Much Further West” would be their first and only release for Tiger Style Records as the company closed down shortly after the bands initiation.

Lucero issued their follow up album “Nobody’s Darlings” through their self-formed record label, Liberty & Lament. The album was released in 2005 and was produced by Jim Dickinson (studio musician on Bob Dylan’s “Time out of Mind” and sound engineer on Big Star’s “Third”). Also that year director Aaron Goldman premiered his film “Dreaming in America” a documentary detailing the recording process of Lucero’s album “Nobody’s Darlings”. The band issued a compilation of rarities and demo tapes in 2006 and that same year released “Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers”. The band toured heavily for this release as did they for their next album “1372 Overton Park”.

The band continued to reinforce their reputation as one of the hardest working bands, touring almost non-stop from 2010 to 2011. In 2012 they put out their 8th studio album “Women & Work” and also contributed the tracks “Everything You Need” and “Take You Away” to the soundtrack of Mudd (a film directed by the brother of lead singer Ben Nichols’, Jeff Nichols).

Lucero put out another studio album in 2013 entitled “Texas & Tennessee” and the following year released their live album “Lucero: Live from Atlanta” in 2014.