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Venue

Stone Pony Summer Stage

913 Ocean Ave, 07712, Asbury Park, NJ, US

Capacity: 4,000

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Additional details

Doors open: 18:00

Concert in your area for Country and Rock.

Find out more about Country and Rock.

Lucero biography

Lucero is a Memphis based alternative country band whose work explores an eclectic range of styles outside the scope of Americana. They touch on genres expected to be paired with country such as southern rock, rockabilly, and heartland music; however they also incorporate punk and soul into the mix.

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.

Live reviews

Seeing a folk, bluegrass, country band in NYC is an experience. Its great to see how many fans of that music genre there are in NYC. As soon as I walked into The Gramercy Theatre, I didn't feel like I was in the city anymore. There were flannels, cowboy boots and lots of Bud heavy. All that a bluegrass concert should look like.
I recently came across the band by discovering them on Spotify, so going in I only knew about 2 songs but I left the concert with so many favorites. The Turnpike Troubadours played their hearts out beginning with their biggest and my personal favorite, Every Girl. The energy onstage was contagious especially when the opening band, American Aquarium joined them on stage for 2 songs, drinks in hand, and you could see the chemistry between them.
I'm not going to brag, but they claimed that this NYC concert was the best one so far. I mean, who can argue with NYC. If you are looking for raw songs written by real musicians with a southern heart, go see Turnpike Troubadours.

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darlene-gilbertie

I saw Lucero at Newport Folk Festival playing some of their country-punk rock sound. I had previously heard the band’s songs ‘Loggia Split’ and ‘Smoke’ so was excited to catch the band live. With an alternative country vibe blending with punk rock and soul Lucero have a distinctive sound to their songs which has been honed by the striking amount of time they spend touring and performing. On stage the band compromise Ben Nichols (vocals and guitar), Roy Berry (drums), John C. Stubblefield (bass), Brian Venable (guitar) and Rick Steff (piano, organ and accordion) plus a brass section for some of their more recent songs. Lucero’s set included ‘Sounds of The City’, ‘Sweet Little Thing’, ‘Women and Work’, ‘Tears Don’t Matter Much’ and ‘Texas and Tennessee’ which was performed with soul and vigour. The crowd loved getting into the songs and shouting back lyrics to frontman Ben Nichols. It was a really dynamic set full of rocky riffs and drum beats. I particularly love the confessional urgency of songs like ‘Tears Don’t Matter Much’ and ‘Ain’t So Lonely’ so I enjoyed those live. I also loved the more laid back country tune ‘Texas and Tennessee’ with Ben’s rasping vocals and the rocky side to ‘Woman and Work’.

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