From the paper listed in my title and reprinted in my local newspaper,is this article about 58 year old english singer/musician Nick Lowe. For any Lowe fans,read on.
(Article by Jim Farber)
-Nick Lowe had one fear about growing old in "pop".
Nick:I didn't want to become one of those thinning-haired ,jowly old geezers who still does the same schtick the y did when they were young,slim and beautiful."
So,he did something entirely different.
The man originally known as one of the architechts of the new wave sound in the '70s,having served as house producer for the legendary "Stiff" records,
as a pioneer of neo-power pop in his solo albums and as a rockabilly revivalist in his work with the super-group Rockpile....remade himself entirely in his middle years.
Lowe's recent albumns epitomized by the new "At My Age",moved him out of the realms of ironic pop and animated rock and into the role of a worldy balladeer. Specializing in grave vocals and graceful tunes.
Lowe's last four & most recent albums,mine the wealth of American Roots Music,drawing on vintage country and soul + r & b to create an elegant mix of his own.
In works such as 2002's brilliant "The Convincer" and the new CD,Lowe has found a new forte' in wise,understated and darkly funny musings. on the inevitabiltiy of romantic ruin. This,even though the last few years of his life have taken a few unhappy turns. Since his prior CD,Lowe stumbled into a comitted love,then,just as haphazardly,became a father for the first time two years ago.
As a self-confessed,"Life-long selfish pig",Lowe says he wasn't looking for love.
Lowe: "Suddenly,it came along and you are powerless to resist."
Having a child came as an even bigger shock.
Lowe:I'd thought I had some not that excused me from fatherhood...but then I thought,Wait a minute,this could be really fantastic."
"I'm not really a devoted father and I don't have the faintest idea what I'm doing,but he is a great little chap".
Lowe decided to stress lovelorn songs beccaue it's "more fun to sing songs about being fed up".
"They're just easier to write and it's much harder to write optomistic songs,that don't make you feel like you've just been force-fed cream cakes."
Nick Lowe is still writing songs but "I'm past the hearts and flowers stage." Says the englishman. -
- Borderstone
