Lucero
When country and alternative merged like tributaries in the 1990s, the result was both forward- and backward-traveling. Nostalgia was built in for bands such as Uncle Tupelo, Old 97’s, Neko Case & Her Boyfriends, Whiskeytown, Drive-By Truckers and a quartet from Memphis called Lucero: You couldn’t pledge allegiance to roots music’s rough gothic past, and critique the gaudy present like punk- and indie-rockers do, without sounding a little wistful in your quest for realness.
Alt-country was a movement, but also a kind of trade and a niche that prized real instruments, untreated voices and poetry about the distance between dreams and limitations. These ragged artisans knew they were never going to lay siege to Top 40 or tour with Kenny Chesney.
But some of the bands are still thriving in the space they carved out. Lucero, formed in 1998, has kept its lineup mainly intact while progressing “from sad bastard country rock to soul and R&B,” to quote guitarist Brian Venable’s online band biography.
On their tenth album, All A Man Should Do, Lucero embrace another hometown icon: the fabled Memphis power pop band Big Star. The album title is a quotation of a line from one of Big Star’s dearest songs, “I’m in Love With a Girl,” which Lucero covers here.
All A Man Should Do spans Lucero’s whole Southern and Tennesseean experience. Horn lines punctuate the honky-tonk rumble, “Can’t You Hear Them Howl,” while “Went Looking for Warren Zevon’s Los Angeles,” is an outsider’s ballad, with acoustic guitar up front and vocalist Ben Nichols as a chastened narrator: “Going back to Memphis with a picture and a song/So long, so long/ Gonna find a jukebox, everyone can sing along.”
Music’s moment of Peak Americana has arguably receded, if not passed. Uncle Tupelo begat Wilco, which begat the art rock of Jeff Tweedy. Whiskeytown’s Ryan Adams is now covering Taylor Swift. But the founders have created work that will outlive them. Lucero, for their part, are sounding more confident and more in touch than ever with their reason for being.
Lucero performs on Sunday, December 6 at Culture Room, Showtime is 8pm. Tickets $20.
~ Sean Piccoli
