Live from Ellis Square. Lucero at Pepsi Savannah Local Eats Fest

November 18, 2025

Picture it. Ellis Square pulsing with people. Trays of Sorry Charlie Oysters pulled from local waters. The first hundred guests biting into free short rib sandwiches. Cocktails with a Pepsi twist. The Train Wrecks warming up the stage. Lucero stepping into the lights with a set that spans heartbreak, drinking nights, fatherhood, and twenty five years of doing the work.

Pepsi Savannah Local Eats Fest is taking over Sorry Charlie’s Oyster Bar this Saturday, November 22nd, and Lucero is stepping right into the middle of the celebration.

We joined Lucero lead singer Ben Nichols for a Zoom chat to talk about the celebration.

Ben Nichols was sitting in his basement in Northeast Ohio, the same room where he has written entire albums, the same room where he disappears to put words together when the rest of the world goes quiet. “This is where I do a lot of songwriting,” he says. “I have actually written a number of albums in this very room.” It is a simple line, but it reveals everything about him. Family upstairs, guitar nearby, and the tug of a touring life always pulling him in two directions.

Lucero has been around for more than twenty five years, long enough to watch generations of fans come and go, long enough to survive wild nights, heartbreak nights, whiskey nights, and nights where the songs did more lifting than the band ever could. But now, life looks different. The songs do too. “In the past we were known for heartbreak songs, maybe some whiskey songs and rock and roll songs,” Ben says. “These days the heartbreak songs I write are more about my daughter and how much I miss her when I am out on the road.”

That shift, from barroom sorrow to fatherhood longing, feels like a chapter turning in real time. Ben sings differently now because he loves differently now. But the core of Lucero remains untouched. Gritty stories. Big heart. Southern bones.

And for Savannah, the timing could not be better. Lucero has played Savannah many times, but if you know the city, you know the name that comes next. “There was an old place, an old bar called The Jinx in Savannah,” Ben says, the way you talk about a friend who shaped who you became. “It was one of our favorite haunts.” Anyone who lived here during that era knows exactly what he means. Sticky floors. Loud nights. Music that carried across Congress Street.

That is why this upcoming show feels so electric. A historic band playing in a historic square in the middle of the city, surrounded by buildings that have watched centuries of celebration and noise. Ben feels it too. “Y’all live in one of the most beautiful towns in the south,” he says. “The square should be a fun place to have a show.”

Ben talks about his favorite song to play, and his voice softens around the memory. “Among the Ghosts,” he says. “The title track on that record is about having a family back home and keeping a fire lit for you while you are out on the road.” Every night, that song gives him something steady to hold on to.” It is not just performance. It is direction.

Savannah will hear that song in a square surrounded by people, lights, and oyster shells. “I am a huge oyster fan,” Ben says with a grin you can hear through the phone. “If there is a shrimp cocktail and some raw oysters, I am a very happy man.”

There will be songs from Tennessee. Songs from the self titled record. Songs that have been shouted in clubs for decades. “We will be playing songs from the whole catalog,” Ben says. “Some newer stuff and plenty of old songs off the first couple of albums.”

It is a full circle moment. A career long look back in a city that remembers them well. “We have missed being there,” Ben says. “We are very glad for this opportunity. We want to thank the Pepsi Savannah Local Eats Fest for having us.”

It feels like the city is coming alive. Music in the open air. Community gathered. Food that tastes like the coast. And a band with Southern roots that run deep, playing under the Savannah sky once again.

Then Ben puts it simply, “Just let Savannah know how happy we are to be back in town.”