Ben Nichols – “The Darkness Sings” [Video]

Ben Nichols Channels Southern Shadows in “The Darkness Sings” Video

Lucero frontman Ben Nichols single and video, “The Darkness Sings,” is a slow-burn ballad that hums with eerie electric flourishes and emotional weight. It’s another taste of his upcoming solo album In the Heart of the Mountain, out July 25 on Liberty & Lament.

Originally an unfinished outtake from The Last Wolf in the Woods—a synth record he made with his stepdaughter Joslyn Milburn—Nichols reimagines the track as a hushed meditation on saying goodbye. “The darkness” here isn’t menacing or villainous—it just is. It’s ever-present. And like the best Nichols songs, it doesn’t flinch.

The song follows lead single “Fading Back Into the Night” and continues a run of stripped-back, deeply personal tracks. Where his 2009 debut The Last Pale Light in the West was concept-driven, In the Heart of the Mountain feels more like a weathered scrapbook—11 tracks strung together like a Southern gothic poem.

Nichols says the project was sparked after a stranger mailed him a copy of What About This, a collection of poems by Arkansas poet Frank Stanford. The gift opened a creative door: “I ended up creating my own everyday-life-mythology of where I was from,” Nichols shares. The songs are soaked in the feel of rivers, fields, and fading light—quietly powerful, distinctly Southern, and all his own.

Recorded at Southern Grooves Studio in Memphis with ace engineer Matt Ross-Spang, the album features longtime collaborators including Morgan Eve Swain (violin, vocals), Cory Branan (guitars), and Todd Beene (pedal steel, guitars). Nichols handled the rest—writing, acoustic guitar, vocals, and even some percussion—crafting a record that feels raw, lived-in, and completely on his own terms.

Pre-order the album HERE.

Ben Nichols – In the Heart of the Mountain Tour Dates
July 25 – Little Rock, AR – Whitewater Tavern [SOLD OUT]
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