Ben Nichols, frontman and songwriter for the long-running Memphis Rock band Lucero, has announced his sophomore solo album In the Heart of the Mountain, which will be released on July 25 via Lucero’s label, Liberty & Lament. The album is one of his most personal pieces of work to date and marks his first solo release in 16 years, since 2009’s The Last Pale Light in the West.

Along with the announcement, Nichols has shared lead single “Fading Back Into the Night,” a track that “reflects on regrets and missed chances while offering hope that redemption is right around the corner.” The release is accompanied by a music video shot and edited by photographer Chad Cochran at his studio in Cleveland, OH.

Nichols explains:

I’ve written a number of songs about being a fuck-up and this is another one. A song about missing the boat. Getting to the game just a little too late. And then just fading away. That and the idea of the stars disappearing with the sunrise but always still being there in the night on the other side of the world. For some reason I thought those two sentiments went together nicely in one song.

Although not a concept album like his debut solo record, The Last Pale Light in the West, the song titles of In the Heart of the Mountain read as a poem in sequence, as listed below:

In the heart of the mountain

The darkness sings

A bleak overture

From a western or a war movie

While the stars disappear

Fading back into the night

I’m in over my head

She’s starlight in the river

The prayer

The swamper’s lament

The devil takes his leave

Nichols gives an inside view on this:

“A few years ago, a stranger mailed me a copy of What About This, Collected Poems of Frank Stanford. He sent it because he knew I was from Arkansas and Stanford had lived and died in Arkansas and he thought my lyrics shared something in common with those poems. Even at the age of 50, I’ve never read much poetry, but there was something about Stanford’s writing I fell in love with. There was something alive and dangerous in his words. Nothing safe about the way he wrote. Soaked in Southern tones but not backwards, more unconventional and pushing at the edges of Southern decorum. It was mythology and everyday life, it was an exotic landscape and it was home. It was not quite like anything I’d read before.  

Frank Stanford’s poems made me want to write in a style I’d never written in before. I’m not sure if I actually achieved that, but I ended up creating my own everyday-life-mythology of where I was from. I also ended up writing some of my favorite lyrics in years. I had a handful of guitar parts that I was holding back from the band. They were acoustic-based and had a quieter feel to them and I wasn’t ready to turn them into Lucero songs. In my head I was hearing different instrumentation and a different approach than what the band usually does. And I had these new lyrics I was working on. Before I knew it, I’d written an album’s worth of songs and fashioned the song titles into a poem unworthy of Frank Stanford but still inspired by him.”  

In the Heart of the Mountain features Nichols on acoustic guitar and vocals, as well as occasional electric guitar solo and percussion. He is accompanied by Morgan Eve Swain (The Huntress and the Holder of Hands, The Devil Makes Three, Brown Bird) on violin and backing vocals, Cory Branan on electric and acoustic guitars, and Todd Beene (Chuck Ragan, Glossary) on pedal steel and electric guitars. It was recorded at Southern Grooves studio in Memphis, Tennessee with Matt Ross-Spang as the recording and mixing engineer.  

Nichols’ has also announced a run of solo tour dates for July and August including shows in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas as well as St. Louis, Columbus, Cleveland and more.

Ben Nichols Solo Tour Dates:

July 5 – Fischer, TX – Devil’s Backbone

July 24 – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern

July 25 – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern

July 26 – Tulsa, OK – Mercury Lounge

July 27 – St. Louis, MO – Golden Record

July 29 – Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi Indy

July 30 – Lexington, KY – The Burl

July 31 – Columbus, OH – Rumba Café

August 2 – Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop

August 3 – Huntington, WV – The Loud

August 5 – Morgantown, WV – 123 Pleasant Street

August 6 – Knoxville, TN – Open Chord Music

August 7 – Greenville, SC – Radio Room

August 8 – Chattanooga, TN – Cherry Street Tavern