Veteran new wave rocker Nick Lowe doesn’t need to be “Cruel to be Kind” to his U.S. fans. The British singer-songwriter will be making a brief jaunt across the pond early this month for a nine-city tour.
The stretch of dates begins October 6 with a show at Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA, and wraps two weeks later on October 19 at Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY. Other gigs along the way include an October 12 stop at The Barrymore Theatre in Madison, WI, and an October 17 show at the historic Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York, NY.
Lowe is touring behind his June 2007 release, “At My Age,” which received high marks from critics at Pitchfork Media and Rolling Stone alike. Pitchfork‘s reviewer noted, “If Lowe used to attack pop songs with a punk’s cynicism and an ironic streak a mile wide, these days he exudes the illusion that he’s settled down and settled in when in fact he’s been happily exploring formalism with a sly wink.”
As the album title suggests, Lowe has matured in age and musical styles since his 1978 debut “Jesus of Cool.” However, this latest endeavor (his first studio recording in six years), almost didn’t happen.
“What normally happens…when I feel like I want to do a record is I get an idea or feeling, along with about three or four new songs, which is a major body of work for me, because I’m not very prolific,” Lowe is quoted on his Web site. “When those two things coincide I call everyone up and we go in and record. And if that goes well, those three or four songs will serve as sort of the engine that will drive the writing and recording of the rest of the record. But that process never happened with this one.”
Lowe’s recordings dropped below the mainstream U.S. radar following his only hit in the States, “Cruel to be Kind,” hit our shores as the lead-in track on 1979’s “Labour of Lust.” However, the musician served as the producer for several Elvis Costello albums, including the breakthrough debut “My Aim Is True.”
Nick Lowe itinerary:
(Dates subject to change.)
| October 6 | Solana Beach, CA | Belly Up Tavern |
| October 7 | Tempe, AZ | Rhythm Room |
| October 11 | Minneapolis, MN | Dakota Jazz Club |
| October 12 | Madison, WI | The Barrymore Theatre |
| October 14 | Chicago, IL | The Green Mill |
| October 15 | Cleveland, OH | Beachland Ballroom |
| October 16 | Rochester, NY | German House Theater |
| October 17 | New York, NY | Zankel Hall |
| October 19 | Tarrytown, NY | Tarrytown Music Hall |
