by Danny Coleman
“We did,” began a laughing Blues/Rock guitarist Lance Lopez, “We put out a “Live in NYC” album a while back but we have put out a couple of albums since the live record. We put out a record in 2018 called “Tell The Truth” on the Mascot/Provogue label and this album came out a while back and we’re pretty proud of it; we worked on it all through the pandemic so, it’s a pandemic piece.”
Born in Louisiana with a Texas twist; Lopez is often overlooked when it comes to blues and/or rock guitarists but yet his resume is longer than most. Collaborating or sharing a stage with greats such as Johnny Winter, Billy Gibbons, Eliza Neals and many more; his talents are often in demand and he makes the most of his opportunities.
A move to Nashville, a return to Cleopatra Records for his most recent release, “Trouble Is Good” and the album’s heavier sound have all served him well as did the pandemic of 2020. Lance explains the return to Cleopatra and how the album and its title came to be.
“So far, it has been good with Cleopatra, we did the live record several years back and when it didn’t work out with Mascot we went back to Cleopatra because we were originally going to do another studio record with them but the producer I was working with was also producing Supersonic Blues Machine who was signed to Mascot and so he wanted to take that studio album to Mascot and he did and they released it. After that, we weren’t going to do another album with Mascot but we began to carry forward making the album anyway; Joey and I piecemealed the record together. So, I went back to Cleopatra once we felt we had a record that was pretty much completed and they agreed to put it out. I had worked with their team for years with the live record and my own personal stuff and so I thought it would be a good move to go back and work with them again.”
“During the pandemic, there wasn’t really anything happening so Mascot/Provogue decided not to exercise the option to do another album. I had started plans to make a new album before the pandemic happened; I had taken quite a break after the “Tell The Truth” record in 2018 and in January of 2020, I had gone over to Little Rock and played a show for the Arkansas River Blues Society and was getting ready to go back on the road because I had some offers in Europe. So, I began talking to Joey Sykes who I had worked with previously on “Tell The Truth” and with a band I was in in Los Angeles called, Supersonic Blues Machine. He had been a writer on songs on those records and when I moved to Nashville, Joey reached out to me because he had a connection to Nashville since he was a songwriter here and he said, “Let’s make a record” and we started making plans and then boom; COVID hit. So, it then pushed me into home recording and becoming a home recording engineer and getting a home recording rig and starting to record guitar and vocal tracks in my home in Nashville. So, that was one of the principles behind the title “Trouble Is Good,” because through the pandemic and being kind of forced into doing that; I had talked about doing that for a long time but I was more focused on touring and the road and playing shows than I was with setting up a home recording situation. So, COVID kind of thrust me into that and so that was kind of one of the points of “Trouble Is Good” and I also began to work on tube amplifiers and repair guitar amps here in Nashville and that was another skillset I improved upon that the pandemic kind of thrust me into; it was a really interesting time period. In the midst of all of that, Joey Sykes and I were writing songs and exchanging ideas and we recorded batches of songs. We had songs leftover from the previous albums we had worked on that didn’t make those records or that were demos at that time and I had songs that I had begun working on here in Nashville that made the record like, “Easy To Leave” and “Voyager” and then the title track came about in the middle of COVID through a conversation with John Hiatt. He just said the phrase because I was kind of complaining about how everything was; it was really cool how trouble was good because I had to look at all the other areas that I was focusing on at the time.”
With new found skills, a new studio and a new sense of purpose, Lopez called on some friends to lend a hand to bring it all together.
“So, we chose 10 of the best songs that we had recorded over that time period and we had a whole host of great musicians that showed up to play on the record like Gregg Bissonette and Bobby Rondinelli, Brian Tichy, John Hummel, Danny Miranda, Peter Keys and a whole host of great musicians that lended their talents to the record who really showed up and played and it was really amazing. So, the tracks came out exactly how I envisioned when I began to write them and that was what I thought was the greatest achievement of the album for me personally; that we sonically captured that. That also came from the mix engineers of Justin Cortelyou and Soultrain Sound Studios here in Nashville and also Dan Rothchild out in Los Angeles who helped mix the record and kind of bring all of the music sonically to where it should be. I’m really proud of the record; I’m categorized as a blues rock artist so we wanted to make a blues rock record and we kind of emphasized more on the rock and we went and got some of our favorite players who play rock today and had them play on the album.”
Guests such as those are always welcome but at times, it is Lopez who is the guest, such as he was on Eliza Neals’ “Badder To The Bone” album; even if only briefly.
“I love Eliza, I’ve known her for years,” he began with true sincerity. “I met her when I was touring with Johnny Winter and she has been a friend, I’ve seen her out on gigs when we were on the road and playing around Detroit. I was really honored when she reached out and asked me to play on her album; what an honor. Anytime an artist reaches out to have me play guitar on their records; what a privilege. So, I showed up to that session with everything I had and all my gear and guitars and then I was so happy to see my brother Peter Keys from Lynyrd Skynyrd, we have our chemistry from playing together and we knew it was gonna be great. We also had some of the best of the best Nashville rhythm sections and so we knew this was going to be an amazing session for her. So, when we cut “Queen of the Nile,” we did one take through and I was checking my guitar rig because I had two amps, one on either side of the studio to get a bigger sound. So, I had one amp on one side of the studio in one room and one amp isolated on the other side of the studio and the band wanted to do a pass through to make sure the tones and everything were right and so that was the first take. When we were through, I said, “Hey man, let’s do another one, I think we’re ready now” and they said, “No, we got it” and I was like, wait a minute, I was just checking out my gear (laughs) and they were like, “No, I think we got it” and I was like, no, no, no, no (laughs). I walked out of there and was just so downtrodden because I only got the one take on a guitar solo and Peter was walking out with me because we were going to hang out and he said, “Take it easy man, it’s no big deal” and the next thing you know, Eliza’s track was everywhere and I listened back and I thought, OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad (laughs).”
Since the record’s release mid-summer, Lopez and the band have been doing their best to promote it but don’t have any plans for a perpetually long tour at the moment; what about after that?
“We’re gonna be kind of weekend warriors, we were in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, the midwest, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and the east coast but you can check the dates out on my website and hopefully we’ll see a lot of people but yeah, I’ve got plans to start working on another record. I’ve got some different guys that I’m playing with here in Nashville and a couple of really great studios in town that I’ve been working at; I plan on going back in and begin recording some more material and focusing more on playing live off the floor and focusing more on guitar music; kind of a live in the studio kind of feel. Maybe kind of going back more towards some roots, this record was kind of geared more towards rock, maybe this one will be focused more on the blues but for now, we are focusing on “Trouble Is Good.”
To discover more about Lance Lopez, please visit https://www.facebook.com/LanceLopezBand/
More about Danny Coleman and Rock On Radio on https://dannycolemansrockonradio.com/danny