Lucero’s Ben Nichols Issues Haunting & Poetic Solo Album 'In the Heart of the Mountain' (ALBUM REVIEW) - Glide Magazine

ALBUM REVIEW: Ben Nichols Camps Outside of Himself on 'In The Heart of the Mountain'

Ben Nichols has been an underrated anchor of Americana music since before the genre became overly simplified and radio-friendly under that moniker. His Southern punk roots have infused Lucero’s gritty anthems for a quarter-century, and his new solo album In The Heart of the Mountain continues in the band’s richly-mined themes of yearning, getting by, and never quite getting your shit together. But Mountain juxtaposes those daily struggles agains…

Lucero’s Ben Nichols Issues Haunting & Poetic Solo Album 'In the Heart of the Mountain' (ALBUM REVIEW) - Glide Magazine

Earlier this year, Ben Nichols and Rick Steff of Lucero issued the duo album Lucero Unplugged. A solo album from the band’s principal songwriter and frontman seemed like a logical next step, and hence we have In the Heart of the Mountain, Nichols’s second solo album and first in 16 years. Although it is not a concept album like his first solo effort, it draws inspiration from the Arkansas poet Frank Stanford’s “What About This: Collected Poems o…