I have a confession to make. I’ve never really listened to Lucero. I know what you’re thinking, and I agree — how? Virtually every band I reviewed between 2012 and 2016 was either in the band’s circle or heavily inspired by them. I adored their album Among the Ghosts but never got around to writing about it. But before then? I really couldn’t tell you. After listening to Should’ve Learned By Now, their most recent entry in a 20-year catalogue, I went back to their earlier stuff to try to figure out what turned me off so much. Sonically, they’re a happy marriage of my beloved Two Cow Garage and Gaslight Anthem. So now it’s my turn to ask — what’s wrong with me?
(TBH for some reason the song “Women & Work” is a bit off-putting to me but otherwise…no notes.)
All of this is to say I’m approaching Should’ve Learned By Now with relatively fresh ears, and as a newbie I’m probably not the intended audience for this one — which I think is what makes the album so refreshing. I couldn’t tell you if this makes a longtime fan’s blood run hot, but I for one am enjoying the album’s back-to-basics approach. These are songs about sticking with rock’n’roll for the long haul: the exhilaration, the youthful exuberance, and the toll it takes on long-term relationships.
It got me to thinking about the recent revelation that Cody Jinks is a student of none other than Jordan Peterson. Adeem the Artist posted something along the lines of Americana becoming commercialized to the point of allowing a guy like this in its umbrella and it’s gotten me thinking: does Americana have a political stance? Has it ever meant anything
I think that answer is a resounding yes. It’s a longtime joke to describe Americana as “country music for people who listen to NPR” — and that’s precisely the problem. I’ve used this line myself but the issue is that the people who listen to NPR are not as politically left as they think they are, nor are they as left as many of Americana’s sharpest songwriters. Artists like Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Two Cow Garage, Adeem the Artist — hell, the Indigo Girls — are far too radical for the average NPR listener, even if their music is played on those stations. When we equate Americana with NPR listeners, we are equating it with a genteel suburban outlook that completely erases the radical working class and punk rock traditions that are vital to Americana as a genre, a vitality that is seeping away as the Americana Music Association seeks to gain broader recognition from the music industry.*
Should’ve Learned By Now isn’t overtly political. But it evokes the sweat and pulsating energy of The Way Things Were Back Then with no trace of maudlin nostalgia — instead, Nichols views his youth with warmth and wisdom. The regret has been dulled with the knowledge that things are actually pretty ok (in spite of the song “Nothing’s Alright”) and the pain doesn’t need to smart anymore. I’ve chosen not to write about any one song in particular because the album is so cohesive and fits perfectly as a piece (though “Macon if We Make It” is going to be one of those songs on permanent repeat in my mental jukebox for decades to come.) Should’ve Learned By Now asks us: remember when Americana was about rock’n’roll, and everything that meant?
*FWIW, I do listen to quite a bit of NPR and wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to DJ or something!!!! Call me!