Nick Lowe is the coolest. He would probably disagree with that statement with a sort of self deprecating, light hearted joke only proving further the point at hand.
Since the late ‘70s Lowe has been writing songs that have become sort of anthems of rock and roll like “So It Goes” or “Cruel To Be Kind” or his giant hit “(What’s So Funny Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”
At 75 years old and living in London, Lowe is having a sort of second wind with his latest project with Nashville-based, long time running Los Straitjackets. In September of this year, after about a decade of playing together, Lowe and the band released their first studio album together Indoor Safari.
Lowe and Los Straitjackets will perform in Houston at The Heights Theater on Wednesday, December 11.
“It has,” agrees Lowe with the idea of Los Straitjackets breathing some new excitement into his artistic life. “I’ve sort of thought I’d had enough of making records really. I couldn’t really see the point of doing it.”
Lowe describes how historically his approach to making albums in the studio was becoming outdated and too expensive when compared with the more modern way of making albums thesedays.
“You can make a fantastic sounding record in your bedroom really with a few hundred dollars worth of equipment but the kind of stuff we do, although it’s got a modern outlook, I think certainly a very current outlook, it’s based on retro. The kind of music we do just sounds better like that and if it sounds too modern, it doesn’t swing and it doesn’t really work if it doesn’t swing.”
The demand for a new album has been 11 years in the making and stems from Lowe and Los Straitjackets touring together after his 2013 Christmas album, Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family.
After making Quality Street, Lowe suddenly and quickly lost two friends and bandmates; drummer Boby Irwin and producer Neil Brockbank. Lowe describes how their deaths really “took the wind out of his sails” and made the album, though a commercial success, hard for him to promote.
A few years had passed and at the suggestion of Yep Roc, a label he shares with Los Straitjackets, he and the band began touring together to support the album focusing heavily on the Christmas season at that time.
“That’s one of the great things,” says Lowe of a seasonal album “It’s the gift that keeps on giving.” When he and the band first got together, Los Straitjackets had learned the songs Lowe had suggested they could do together.
“It took about 20 minutes of us playing before I said ‘Look boys, don’t worry about the record. Let’s just treat it as if you’re going to do an instrumental of the songs and I’ll just sing on top and we will see what happens.’ That’s when it started getting good then because it sounded like the songs all right but it started to sound like me not with a backing band but it started to sound like another unit,” says Lowe.
“I think Nick right from the beginning, he wanted it to be integrated,” says Los Straitjackets guitarist Eddie Angel who describes himself as being consistently impressed with Lowe’s performances, dedication and overall genuine niceness. “He didn’t want us to be back up side men learning his songs, learning his records. He wanted us to be ourselves and bring our own thing to it so that was very cool.”
Bringing out a masked band overseas definitely created some confusion among Lowe fans who aren’t all familiar with the long running success of Los Straitjackets. “I think the first time we played in London, half of his audience was very perplexed because if you’re not used to it it’s pretty jarring to come in and see all of a sudden there’s guys in wrestling masks,” says Angel.
Lowe laughs recalling the many times he’s been asked why he “makes’ the band cover their faces in that way followed by people repeatedly asking Los Straightjackets if it “gets hot under there,” an obvious question that he says the fellas always answer with a polite smile.
“It goes to show another thing about Nick is, he’s got a sense of humor and he’s got this confidence that he would go on stage with guys in wrestling masks and that’s going way out on a limb,” says Angel. “We had nothing to lose by doing this with Nick but Nick had a lot to lose. He could have looked foolish but he trusted his instincts and he’s got good instincts.”
Angel and his bandmates were already fans of Lowe’s songs and he describes how their shared musical backgrounds and love for vintage music really sealed the deal creatively and helped them all blend together organically.
“When the two of us get together it creates a third thing, “says Lowe. “It doesn’t sound like they’re backing me up at all. I don’t think remotely they’re a backing group. It really does feel like when we get together it makes another group.”
After reaching burning out a bit on the Christmas feelings, Lowe and Los Straitjackets started to get offers for off season shows. As they saw their audiences grow larger, wider and younger, they also saw the demand to have material recorded for the merch table at least.
Due to the logistics of the band, with Lowe living in London and the band based in the United States, the only way for them to record together was making random stops in studios while on tour. Though not ideal, it allowed them to release a series of singles for their fans.
“You just don’t know what you’re going to get in those circumstances,” says Lowe adding, “The other thing is that the songs I was writing were written specially for this project. They’re very simple songs and songs like that only really start working when you’ve played them in front of a live audience five or six times.”
Though Lowe admits they “tried their best” on these initial recordings, the final sound felt a little flat. When Yep Roc suggested they use the songs to create a full album Lowe and the band connected with Alex Hall in Chicago to fine tune their tracks and allow them to exist with the swing the band has live.
Indoor Safari definitely has that swinging groove Lowe and Los Straitjackets set out to build and capture. The album plays as a cozy and intimate yet fun cocktail shindig to the listener complete with chances to find a “Quiet Place” to slow dance.
The opening track “Went To A Party” sets the mood and tone just right for a groovy hang with Lowe and Los Straitjackets that lasts for the 12 tracks that make up the album encompassing feelings of elation and in true Lowe form, heartache as well.
Lowe and the bands shared love of classic music shines through and is no doubt a huge part of the glue that holds them together creatively. Where Los Straitjackets shine musically with their rare ability to hold an audience with straight up instrumentals, Lowe’s lyrical genius blends perfectly to create songs that seem to have existed forever.
“They’re all such great musicians and if the song is good enough, well you don’t have to worry it’ll just come out and if it doesn’t come immediately, by the time we’ve played it in front of an audience a few times, bingo! It’ll just slot in.”
Lowe knows what makes a good song more than most and it’s his life long dedication to studying and exploring song structures and vibes that makes him the king of cool.
“There’s no doubt about it I’ve always loved American music of all kinds,” says Lowe describing the unique perspective of people from his generation in the United Kingdom who were exposed to older jazz through the skiffle craze which also highlighted folk, blues, country and eventually rhythm and blues to the kids overseas.
“From over here we can sort of pick and choose like a smorgasbord our influences together. At least I’m talking about people from my generation, I’m older now you know but that’s how it was.”
Lowe describes fixating on his mother’s Tennessee Ernie Ford records and really picking up on how the skiffle movement propelled the kind of easy to follow and feel rhythm sections of blues and eventually country music lighting a spark within the young Lowe and many of his contemporaries to learn to play for themselves.
“It was a very short step then to hearing Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Gene Vincent and these people. It sounded like revved up skiffle music so it was a very easy step. Then you join the dots and country and western comes along but you never stop learning. I can’t believe how many records were made in the between 1955 and sort of 1985.”
So much of these influences can be heard in all of Lowe’s projects from his solo work to his work with Rockpile, Little Village and beyond. Oddly enough, Lowe even went on to be a part of America’s first family of country music for a while when he was married to Carlene Carter.
“It was a bit of an unusual development,” laughs Lowe. “Fantastic though. John and June, who I adored both of them, they were so nice to me because I really was a bit of an idiot when I met Carlene and God knows what they thought about me but I was thrilled by them and they were so kind to me,” says Lowe reminiscing on listening to records with his famous father-in-law and enjoying some wine when the famous couple visited their daughter in London.
In hindsight, Lowe can now see the ebbs and flows of Cash’s career at the time and the “Indian summer” he experienced after teaming up with Rick Rubin in his final years. When asked about his own yo-yo of success as an artist, Lowe has a very intentional response.
“It sounds rather arrogant to say I sort of avoided fame and being really famous on purpose but I figured I wanted to be in this sort of long run and I had a very early exposure to fame and what it can do to you and it really scared me. It was an awful experience at the time but in reflection, it was great that it happened to me and it gave me this healthy respect for keeping that at arms length.”
Lowe knew that he should first and foremost focus on his abilities as a songwriter, the very strength along with his general likeability and aura, that have kept him in the minds and hearts of so many.
“I feel very fortunate to still be playing, attracting decent audiences and especially for having younger people come along. That’s the thing that I’m most pleased about because God bless them, the people that have followed me since the start. They’re a real blessing but I’m so pleased that I don’t have to just play for them and that these younger people they also get a kick out of it.”
Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets will perform on Wednesday, December 11 at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19th. Doors at 7 p.m. $32-$76.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
