James Calemine
Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel Blood Meridian, Ben Nichols’ solo album–The Last Pale Light in the West–ranks as a classic. Recorded at Easley and Ardent Studios in Memphis, every song revolves around the main characters of Blood Meridian–a savage tale of hired killers in Texas circa 1850.
Nichols sings and plays acoustic guitar on Last Pale Light in the West. Rick Steff handles piano/accordion duties while Todd Bean contributes pedal steel and electric guitar. It’s a bare-bones affair. In between recording albums with his Memphis band Lucero, Nichols wrote The Last Pale Light in the West.
The title track captures an ominous mood–like a sunset of some wicked day. The next number–“The Kid”–is based on the fourteen-year old from Tennessee who finds himself in the company of assassins. Nichols uses a line from the novel: “Drink up because tonight your soul is required of you…”
“Davy Brown” spins the yarn of an amiable man who must travel with marauders to earn money. The gritty guitar riff sounds hypnotic. “Chambers” tells a sad tale of a war veteran keeping time with evil company. “He was not yet two days out/When Glanton’s naked native scouts/Brought back his empty horse and his brand new gun”.
It’s essential to have read the book to totally understand how well Nichols distills the story into song. A man of the cloth, “Tobin”, turns to the dark side: “I done some preaching back in Texas before the war/Now I hunt heathens cause it pays better than the Lord”.
The final cut on The Last Pale Light in the West, “The Judge”, is an instrumental dedicated to the only survivor of the novel who may be the devil himself.
Read the book. Buy the record.
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