CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Nick Lowe

Zankel Hall
Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 8:30 PM

Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe
Somewhere in London a musician carries the keys to the musical kingdom. In his technicolor sonic scope are all kinds of sounds, from rock to country to soul to pop. Nothing is off limits, as long as it has a groove and goodness based in reality. The musician has been performing for 40 years, but is as fresh today as the first time he stepped on stage. There are no tricks or short cuts. His songs are as solid as the earth, yet carry no lingering hype or heaviness. The musician is Nick Lowe, the headmaster of British rock.
His new album, At My Age, almost didn’t happen. “What normally happens when I feel like I want to do a record is I get an idea or a feeling—along with about three or four new songs,” Lowe said. “When those two things coincide, I call everyone up and we go in and record. And if that goes well, those songs serve as the engine that will drive the writing and recording of the rest of the record. But that process never happened with this one.”
Yet as a collection of songs, At My Age has the feel of an all-timer. There are brand new Lowe classics like “A Better Man” and “I Trained Her to Love Me,” next to obscure covers that are a trademark of the ever-elegant Englishman like Charlie Feathers’ “The Man in Love” and Faron Young’s “Feel Again.” And, as a special surprise, singer Chrissie Hynde guests on “People Change.” All are recorded with such supreme style and absolute substance that by album’s end, this is one collection that feels like a long-lost friend—music that will bring on the good times and see listeners through the bad.
For Lowe, it’s always been about quality over quantity. In 2001 he released The Convincer, seen by many as one of the highlights of a long and illustrious recording career. After that, though, all went quiet on the studio front. There were scattered dates, a live album, and assorted sightings, but no new studio release. That changed in 2007. Once he got back with his steady team of band mates—Bobby Irwin (drums), Geraint Watkins (keyboards), and Steve Donnelly (guitar)—there was no stopping them.
One constant quality of Lowe is that he knows what he’s doing and how he wants to do it. “I still love playing with the same guys I’ve been performing with for, well, ages. They’re really great players, and they get me. They can do all kinds of different stuff, and we know what we don’t like.”
With someone like Lowe—who has been such an unending influence on music as a performer, songwriter, producer, and all-around proud fan—there is always the question of how he knows when his songs are ready for their public debut. “When I can pick up an acoustic guitar and play the thing through and it feels like someone else has written it, then it’s done,” he said. “It needs to be as natural as possible, and generally not sound too much like me. It’s an inner gyroscope that lets you know when it’s done.”