​Ben Nichols (from the album In the Heart of the Mountain

​Ben Nichols (from the album In the Heart of the Mountain

​Ben Nichols (from the album In the Heart of the Mountain available on Liberty & Lament Records) (by Bryant Liggett)
Ben Nichols sounds like the American West. While he fronts Memphis local heroes, Lucero, when Nichols is solo, as in the case of this sophomore effort in In the Heart of the Mountain, his songs score a wide open, solitary expanse of sonic territory. Head west out of Memphis, cross the Mississippi River, and keep going until the space is vast and vacant, a visual that mirrors the sound of In the Heart of the Mountain.  
That gruff Ben Nichols growl is in fine form on the opening, title track, a cut where he drops a devil reference right from the get-go while adding in a stabbing electric guitar inside of the moving weeper. More searing guitar riffs rear up in the experimental melodies in “The Darkness Sings” and “From a Western or a War Movie” while “I’m in Over My Head” is a Rocker that remains thick and solid despite its stripped-down approach, solely provided by Ben Nichols, an electric guitar, and very subtle backing vocals. “The Prayer” is a Gospel cut that was made for a sinner’s redemption. Armed with the great line ‘righteousness and truth are both my allies’, the song closes with the narrator doing a spoken word plea to whatever, or whomever, is beyond.
The whole package of In the Heart of the Mountain is rough around the edges. There’s grit within the Gospel-dosed cuts and underproduction of the entire album, proof again that the best things come with some dirt under the fingernails. (by Bryant Liggett)
Listen and buy the music of Ben Nichols from AMAZON
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