NICK LOWE : THE ROAD TO THE BRENTFORD TRILOGY AND BEYOND PART ONE

The middle of the eighties was a difficult period for Nick Lowe. After honing his skills with Kippington Lodge and Brinsley Schwarz from 1967 to 1975, he had managed to become a central figure of the punk and new-wave movement by the end of  the seventies. He scored a couple of solo hits (Cruel to Be Kind, I Love the Sound Of Breaking Glass), formed Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and recorded and produced several Punk and New Wave acts (most notably Elvis Costello and The Damned). However by the middle of the eighties, everything had gone wrong. Lowe was putting out albums with too many filler (to keep up with the contract he had with his record company) and albeit a couple of songs that he put out charted during this period ("Half a Boy and Half A Man", "I Knew the Bride"), his audience was diminishing and he was wondering if he still had a future as a recording artist.

At loose ends, Lowe received a call from American singer John Hiatt at the beginning of 1987 to enquire if he would like to play bass on his forthcoming album "Bring the Family". Joining Hiatt with Ry Cooder (lead guitar) and Jim Keltner (drums), the whole album recorded in a very spontaneous way over a week showed Lowe that there was still life in producing records in the "old fashion way" without spending a whole week pondering on the snare drum sound ! That group of musicians went on to form the short lived Little Village group over 1991-1992. Reinvogorated by the sessions, Lowe recorded 2 albums that signaled a return to form ("Pinker and Prouder than Previous" and "Party of One") that showed a return to form and were pointing towards the direction he would take from the middle of the 90's.

In 1993 Lowe had everything in place for giving the direction he wanted for his carreer, he had written songs that he felt comfortable singing, found musicians that were sympathetic to his new style. The only thing that he was needing was money to record an album and tour without the pressure of a big record label. Money supplies arrived thanks to the million dollar payment that Lowe received for the royalties of the cover version of "What so funny about peace love and understanding"  that appeared on the multi-million selling soundtrack to the movie "Bodyguard" starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. This enabled Lowe to finance the sessions for his next 2 lp's ("The Impossible Bird" and "Dig My Mood") and the accompanying tours that followed them. 

 The songs written for "The Impossible Bird" were written and rehearsed in the function room of a pub in Brentford where Lowe has been living for years. Released in 1994, the record is roughly divided in between ballads and up-tempo blues-rock numbers. Highlights are abundant, from the uptempo opener "Soulful Wind" (which features a nice little chord progression in between verses and choruses that gives you the impression of hearing the wind) to the rollicking "I'll be There". In between these 2 songs you get a series of well executed ballads of which the highlights are the perfectly paced  "Drive Thru Man", the lament of midlife cris "Where's My Everything" and the barebone tale of madness "The Beast in Me" (well-known for its cover version by Lowe's ex-father in law Johnny Cash) . As usual we get a couple of covers that include great version of "True love travels on gravel Road" (originally sung by Elvis Presley : one hell of a benchmark) and "Trail of Tears" written by songsmith Roger Cook. Musicianship is excellent and the band contains two musicians (Robert Treherne on drums and Geraint Watkins on Keyboards) that still tour and record with Lowe to this day. Guitar player Bill Kirchen only played and toured with Lowe but his idiosyncratic guitar playing distinguishes "The Impossible Bird" from it's follow ups.

 "Dig my mood", the follow-up was recorded over a one year period (from June 1996 to June 1997) and was released on January 1998. This album sees Lowe finally making the transition to "rock-crooner" he had started on his previous outing. The mood Mr Lowe wants us too dig here is definetely a mellow one, tales of  sadness abund with one single ray of light tossed in for good measure (the fantastic ballad "You Inspire Me", later covered by Englebert Humpferdink). You've got another number that's crying to be a covered by Johnny Cash with the misantropic "Man That I've Become. Fantastic songs about heartbreak and lost love ("What Lack of Love Has Done", "Lonesome Reverie", "High On a Hilltop, "I Must be Getting Over You"...). Covers are expertly executed as usual, with a spine-tingling vocal performance on "Failed Christian" that was penned by former Wings guitar player Henry McCullough. Too cut a long story short, apart from Freezing that's a bit slight, every song on the album is great. Dig My Mood sets the template for all the following albums.