26:I[67202,["/_next/static/chunks/0v0zmnc-ft6l-.js","/_next/static/chunks/10tojsbb-0eaf.js","/_next/static/chunks/086jv5onn0hzz.js","/_next/static/chunks/0hp98prejc9n4.js","/_next/static/chunks/13qlgh7i_5g-b.js","/_next/static/chunks/03z3pblncf8bh.js","/_next/static/chunks/0zzcj-i0p619c.js"],"HStack"] 27:I[33783,["/_next/static/chunks/0v0zmnc-ft6l-.js","/_next/static/chunks/10tojsbb-0eaf.js","/_next/static/chunks/086jv5onn0hzz.js","/_next/static/chunks/0hp98prejc9n4.js","/_next/static/chunks/13qlgh7i_5g-b.js","/_next/static/chunks/03z3pblncf8bh.js","/_next/static/chunks/0zzcj-i0p619c.js"],"default"] 28:I[85234,["/_next/static/chunks/0v0zmnc-ft6l-.js","/_next/static/chunks/10tojsbb-0eaf.js","/_next/static/chunks/086jv5onn0hzz.js","/_next/static/chunks/0hp98prejc9n4.js","/_next/static/chunks/13qlgh7i_5g-b.js","/_next/static/chunks/03z3pblncf8bh.js","/_next/static/chunks/0zzcj-i0p619c.js"],"Stack"] 29:I[30442,["/_next/static/chunks/0v0zmnc-ft6l-.js","/_next/static/chunks/10tojsbb-0eaf.js","/_next/static/chunks/086jv5onn0hzz.js","/_next/static/chunks/0hp98prejc9n4.js","/_next/static/chunks/13qlgh7i_5g-b.js","/_next/static/chunks/03z3pblncf8bh.js","/_next/static/chunks/0zzcj-i0p619c.js"],"default"] 31:I[17289,["/_next/static/chunks/0v0zmnc-ft6l-.js","/_next/static/chunks/10tojsbb-0eaf.js","/_next/static/chunks/086jv5onn0hzz.js","/_next/static/chunks/0hp98prejc9n4.js"],"IconMark"] 2a:T4fc,The result of an unplugged year at home is 2024’s Visitor, a folk-rock record that is intimate, immediate, deeply thoughtful, and catchy as hell. Moreland recorded the album at his home in Bixby, Oklahoma, in only ten days, playing nearly every instrument himself (his wife Pearl Rachinsky sang on one song, and his longtime collaborator John Calvin Abney contributed a guitar solo), as well as engineering and mixing the album. “Simplicity and immediacy felt very important to the process,” he says. This is a return to the approach Moreland took on his breakthrough albums, 2013’s In The Throes and 2015’s High On Tulsa Heat, both of which were largely self-recorded at home with a small cadre of additional musicians. Echoes of these early albums can be heard on Visitor (Moreland makes a passing reference to In The Throes’ opening track “I Need You To Tell Me Who I Am” in two different songs on Visitor), which finds Moreland shutting out the noisy world outside, and the even noisier digital world in his pocket, to reconnect with a muse that’s had to increasingly compete for his attention in the intervening years. Visitor charts his journey back to this muse. If Birds In The Ceiling’s theme was alienation, Visitor’s theme is un-alienation. 2b:T483,Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Ben Nichols is the frontman for the Memphis alt-country band Lucero. Lucero formed in the late '90s and the band has released a half-dozen or so albums since 2001, each drawing praise for the group's gritty, rootsy, and almost punk approach to country-rock and for Nichols' smoky, emotional vocal style. During breaks from Lucero, Nichols began recording more acoustic-based material, and an EP featuring a stripped-down trio of Nichols on acoustic guitar, Rick Steff (Cat Power) on accordion and piano, and Todd Beene (Glossary) on pedal steel and electric guitar appeared under Nichols' name in 2009 from Liberty & Lament Records. Titled The Last Pale Light in the West, the EP's seven songs are all based on characters and situations drawn from Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi

John Moreland, Ben Nichols

John Moreland

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