Like Oprah and the Coen Brothers, Lucero’s Ben Nichols is a fan of Cormac McCarthy. The Last Pale Light in the West, his first solo record, is inspired by McCarthy’s 1985 novel Blood Meridian, the tale of murderous gang in the pre-civil war American Southwest. And, Nichols is a good man to tell the tale. His gritty voice and driving acoustic guitar are backed by subdued accordian and shimmering pedal steel that paint a bleak but captivating picture of the books desert setting.

The songs–all but one named for the book’s charachters– touch on lost love and redemption, but center around the gang’s brutal work. The theme of The Last Pale Light in the West is summed up on “The Kid”: “We killed in the desert, we killed in the streets/ We showed what shall and what shall not be/ We stood with pistols, fought back to back/ Now you stood your ground, what ground is that?”

But, it’s a short ablum for such an epic story. At just seven songs (one is an instrumental) the album clocks in at just 27 minutes. Last Pale Light in the West is out now on RCRD LBL.

Ben Nichols – “Toadvine”

Listen to Nichols read an excerpt from Blood Meridian at Daytrotter.

Ben Nichols and Lucero are on tour now.