LUCERO The Memphis band, which just about makes Little Rock its second home, released its major label debut, a horn-fueled ode to Memphis traditions that sounds as rowdy as usual, and launched a large tour. Even with all that going on, Lucero front man and Little Rock native Ben Nichols still found time to star, as a fictionalized version of himself, in Craig Brewer’s MTV series “$5 Cover,” release a solo album inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” and play at least a dozen shows in Little Rock, mostly at White Water Tavern, a bar he loves so much he put it in a song. It goes like this: “White Water Tavern nights / old songs and cheap red wine.”

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