Lowe reaches new heights

By LEN RIGHI

Both new and old material is flowing once again.

For Nick Lowe fans, the last year has been a bonanza.

In June 2007, the venerable Brit pop-rocker and New Wave godfather known for both biting, ironic wit and to-the-bone emotion released “At My Age,” a six-years-in-the-making “country soul” CD that ranks among his best.

Then in January, his debut solo album, buttressed by 10 bonus tracks, was finally issued in America just as it was in Britain in 1978, and with the original title, “Jesus of Cool.”

(In the U.S., “Jesus” was called “Pure Pop for Now People,” and despite — or perhaps because of — re-ordered tracks and the switch of a couple of tunes, it may be an even better record.)

“I am absolutely astonished at how [‘Jesus’] has been re-received,” says Lowe during an interview from his London home. “I hadn’t heard it for 30 years. It’s a strange sensation, like seeing a home movie of yourself.”

The flow of Lowe material will continue later this year with “Clever Clogs,” a new best-of compilation.

“Record companies seem intent on releasing a deluge of my back catalog,” says Lowe.

The new best-of, he says, is being compiled by on old friend, Gregg Geller. “He’s the A&R man who signed me and Elvis [Costello] to Columbia back then [in the late 1970s]. We’ve remained friends, and I’m rather proud he has seen fit to do [my] best-of.”

Geller has compiled and produced dozens of such collections, including the Grammy Award-winning six-disc box set, “Johnny Cash — The Legend,” and “Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ — Bluegrass: 80 Years of American Music.”

Why the title “Clever Clogs”? “A clog is an old-fashioned word for smarta**,” says Lowe with a telling chuckle.

Lowe fans are in for another high: He’s on tour with a set list that samples from his entire career.

Lowe expects to play several “At My Age” songs, including the somewhat controversial “I Trained Her to Love Me.” The seductive, R&B-rhythmed song is sung by a depraved manipulator, intent on “paying back womankind for all the grief I got.” The rogue’s unapologetic “So what?” is positively Cheney-esque, and his overall attitude suggests the anti-hero of Mike Leigh’s film “Naked.”

“Three years ago, when I first stuck it in the set, I never had such a crowd reaction to a new song,” Lowe recalls.

“There were two fundamentalist wings: One, mainly women, was absolutely furious. On the other hand there were guys punching the air, hollering ‘Yeah, Nick! Way to go!,’ like I was boasting. ...

“Luckily, the sensible middle got the joke. But most every night, there are two factions with daggers drawn.”

As for “Jesus of Cool,” his pioneering neo-power-pop recording, “Some things will find their way in. But I’m not making a particularly big deal about it.”

Though Lowe has a certain amount of latitude in choosing what to perform, one song he feels obligated to do is “[What’s So Funny ‘Bout] Peace, Love and Understanding.” It first appeared on the 1974 album “The New Favourites of Brinsley Schwarz” and later became a major hit for Costello. It also was included on “The Bodyguard” soundtrack.

“People really respond so positively to it,” he says. “I think of it as the first original idea I ever had. I began writing songs three or four years prior to writing that one. You write your heroes’ catalog when you first start, and slowly you put those influences together and come up with an amalgamation. When I first wrote [‘Peace, Love and Understanding’], I thought, ‘That’s a good idea.’

“I owe Elvis a lot,” adds Lowe. “He put it on the map with his passionate version [on 1979’s ‘Armed Forces’].”

XNick Lowe will perform at 8 p.m. Sunday at Byham Theater, 101 Sixth St., Pittsburgh. Tickets are $30.50; call (412) 4567-6666 or go to pgharts.org.