Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe has led multiple musical lives, becoming a pillar of pub rock, punk, New Wave, and roots rock over the course of a long, prolific career. Born in Surrey in 1949, he started out in the ’60s with psych-poppers Kippington Lodge before becoming bassist and singer for pub-rock pioneers Brinsley Schwarz, who brought a British perspective to their earthy American influences. As a producer, he was in on the ground floor of the UK’s punk/New Wave movement, overseeing the first British punk single (The Damned’s “New Rose”) and the first five Elvis Costello albums—his cover of Brinsley Schwarz’s Lowe-penned “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” made the tune famous. Lowe kicked off his solo career in 1976 with the hooky, rocking single “So It Goes”; his 1979 hit “Cruel to Be Kind” briefly made him a transatlantic pop star. But Lowe was ultimately destined for cult-hero status. Over the years, his sound gradually grew rootsier and quieter, and by the turn of the century he’d reinvented himself as a cool, somewhat retro-slanted balladeer on classy, expertly crafted albums like Dig My Mood.